Before the Supreme Court this term is the question of whether a beneficiary individual retirement account (an “Inherited IRA”) is exempt from a debtor’s bankruptcy estate under 11 U.S.C. § 522(b)(3)(C) and (d)(12)2 of the Bankruptcy Code. The issue turns on 1) whether the funds in an Inherited IRA are “retirement funds,” and 2) whether an Inherited IRA is considered tax exempt under the Internal Revenue Code (the “Tax Code”).
The United States Supreme Court recently denied certiorari to an Eleventh Circuit appeal which would have addressed the issue of whether section 506(d) of the Bankruptcy Code permits a chapter 7 debt to “strip off”1 a wholly unsecured junior lien in Bank of America, N.A. v. Sinkfield.2 As a result, wholly unsecured junior creditors will continue to suffer the harsh consequence of having its junior lien completely “stripped off” in Eleventh Circuit bankruptcy cases, despite other Circuits around the country holding to the contrary.
Bankruptcy practitioners are anxiously awaiting a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that will determine whether a party can waive its right to trial before an Article III tribunal.
Law No. 176-V "On Rehabilitation and Bankruptcy" came into effect on 25 March 2014.
The Law "On Rehabilitation and Bankruptcy" (Law) has replaced the Law “On Bankruptcy” dated 21 January 1997. The law applies to legal entities and individual entrepreneurs. As with its predecessor, the Law does not apply to state owned entities, pension funds, banks, and insurance companies (for which special provision is made in the relevant legislation).
As compared with the previous law, the Law focuses more on rehabilitation procedure.
Russia has continually been working to improve the functioning of its judicial system and the administration of justice for more than two decades. The active reforms began with a decree by the Russian president creating the judiciary as a branch of the state, separate from the legislature and the executive, and these reforms have yet to be completed. In fact, we are now seeing a new level of reform, in which the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation will cease to exist and its powers will pass to the newly formed Supreme Court of Russia.
In recent years some high profile (and controversial) court decisions have swelled the list of liabilities that must be paid as expenses of an administration. Administration expenses enjoy "super priority", being payable out of floating charge realisations ahead of the claims of preferential creditors and floating charge holders. So, when an otherwise unsecured claim ranks as an administration expense, it clearly benefits the relevant creditor, but at the expense of the floating charge holder.
Until recently, the creditor of a chapter 7 debtor whose debts were not primarily consumer in naturewas unable to rely on Eleventh Circuit precedent to support its position that its debtor's chapter 7 bankruptcy case should be dismissed for bad faith.
The UK Treasury and Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) have been drip-feeding the industry rules and practical details of the transfer of consumer credit (CC) regulation to FCA. FCA has now published the final form of its detailed rules in its Consumer Credit Sourcebook (CONC), with feedback and practical advice. The rules apply from 1 April 2014 with limited grace periods only. It is critical that all firms carrying on credit-related regulated activities know what the changes mean for them.
The case concerning the Game group of companies' administration has now been played out in the Court of Appeal and the eagerly anticipated judgment has been handed down.
The issue at stake concerned a landlord's ability to recover rent as an expense of administration (and therefore payable before other creditors) where such rent is payable in advance but where the tenant's administration occurs immediately before a quarter day's rent falling due.
When structuring a complex debt financing, financiers need to consider whether unsecured and structurally subordinated “mezzanine” debt ought to be replaced in the capital hierarchy with secured second lien credit. The relatively lower financing cost for second lien credit is based on the assumption that the second lien lenders might obtain some equity value from the liens on the residual collateral which would not otherwise be available with such “mezzanine” debt.