The liquidity crisis has increased the need for creative procedures to avoid sudden death bankruptcy in order to salvage existing value.

A Jersey company or a company incorporated elsewhere but administered in Jersey may become involved in insolvency procedures under Jersey law or the law of a jurisdiction outside Jersey.

On January 22nd, the FDIC and the Bank of England announced their agreement to a memorandum of understanding, expanding their cooperation when they act as resolution authorities in resolving troubled deposit-taking financial institutions with activities in the United States and United Kingdom. FDIC Press Release.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency approved the first use of a "shelf charter" for the acquisition of a failed bank, allowing Bond Street Bank, National Association, to acquire a Florida bank that was placed in receivership on January 22nd. The "shelf charter" is a mechanism that involves the granting of preliminary approval to investors for a national bank charter. The charter remains inactive until the investor group is in a position to acquire a troubled institution.

On January 19th, the FDIC announced that it will open a temporary satellite office in suburban Chicago to manage receiverships and to liquidate assets from failed financial institutions primarily located in Midwestern states. FDIC Press Release.

The Senate Banking Committee is considering the establishment of a special bankruptcy court for financial firms as part of its regulatory reform measures. Bankruptcy.

On January 11th, the Eighth Circuit held that a bankruptcy court properly awarded summary judgment to the bankruptcy trustee in a suit seeking to avoid as a preferential transfer, the pre-petition transfer of a mortgage from the debtor to the bank. Because the bank failed to record the home mortgage prior to the borrower's filing of a Chapter 7 bankruptcy petition, Section 547(e)(2)(C) of the Bankruptcy Code deemed the transfer of the mortgage to have occurred immediately before the debtor filed his bankruptcy petition.

On December 16th, the CFTC published for comment amendments to its regulations concerning the operation of a commodity broker in bankruptcy. The amendments would permit a bankruptcy trustee to operate, with the written permission of the CFTC, the commodity broker in the ordinary course, including the purchase or sale of new commodity contracts on behalf of the customers of the commodity broker under appropriate circumstances, as determined by the Commission.

No Respite for Distressed Companies in Hong Kong

In Hong Kong, a company that is financially distressed may generally only avoid being liquidated or wound up if it:

A winding up on 'just and equitable' grounds is a fast evolving remedy which allows a company to avoid a désastre. As in England and certain other jurisdictions, it is a flexible tool, with certain generally accepted grounds for the court exercising its discretion to grant the remedy, such as the need for an investigation into the affairs of the company concerned. Unlike désastre, it is not dependent on the cash flow insolvency of the company concerned and the Royal Court has a broad discretion to tailor the powers it may grant a liquidator to the needs of the situation.

The rule that creditors generally cannot continue to sue a company once a winding up order has been made has been applied to companies being wound up on 'just and equitable' grounds. This is not explicit in the Companies (Jersey) Law 1991 but has been ordered by the Court to give efficacy to the process. One of the features of winding up is that it is generally regarded as better to marshall claims against the company through a liquidator-operated adjudication procedure.