In a December 9, 2016 ruling, in In re Motors Liquidation Co.,2 the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York denied the motion of a group of creditor private funds and registered funds (the “Funds”) seeking to redact or seal the names of parties holding 10 percent or more of the Funds’ equity interests from their corporate ownership statements and required them to disclose the ownership information in a public filing without redactions.

1. BUDGET 2017

Budget 2017 was announced on 11 October 2016 and the implementing Finance Bill was published on 18 October 2016. Together, they contained two pensions-related initiatives.

Benefits for Pensioners Increase

There will be a 5 per week increase in the State pension with effect from 1 March 2017. The timing of the increase will mean that schemes which operate State pension offsets based on the State pension amount in January of a given year will not see a change to the deduction until January 2018.

1. POLICY UPDATE

1.1 Access to ARF option for holders of Buy-Out Bonds originating in DB Schemes

A change to the Revenue Commissioner's administrative procedures, effective from 22 June 2016, means that former defined benefit scheme members whose benefits were transferred to a buy-out bond may now access an Approved Retirement Fund ("ARF") rather than being restricted to the purchase of an annuity.

This update relates to our Alert dated March 17, 2016.

This briefing summarises recent legislation, cases and trends relevant to ongoing efforts to resolve the mortgage arrears crisis.

Recent Legislation

Recent legal and regulatory developments relevant to the mortgage arrears crisis have included:

On February 5, 2016, the Office of Chief Counsel of the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) released a memorandum (a “Memo”) related to the appropriate tax treatment of individuals or entities that invest in real estate limited partnerships and limited liability companies (“LLCs”) with non-recourse financing.¹ In essence, the Memo determined that, for the taxpayer in question, (i) the existence of a tradi

On 29 January 2016, the Irish bankruptcy term was reduced from 3 years to 1 year. This Briefing sets out further detail, and summarises recent developments in the area of bankruptcy and personal insolvency.

BACKGROUND:

This briefing sets out a high level review of issues relevant to secured lending in Ireland.

LENDING IN IRELAND

Commercial lending is generally not a regulated activity in Ireland, although lending to natural person ‘consumers’ may trigger a licencing requirement. Banks licensed in other EU Member States may be compelled to use their passport to carry on a lending activity in Ireland that would otherwise be unregulated.

Twin rulings by the District Court for the Southern District of New York, the first of which was issued in December 2014 and the second issued on June 23rd of this year, have created great uncertainty in the bond market regarding whether, when and to what extent Section 316(b) of the Trust Indenture Act (the “TIA”) may now be used by minority bondholders to block out-of-court restructurings, notwithstanding that a particular restructuring is consistent with the provisions of the relevant indenture.

On May 4, 2015, in the case Bullard v. Blue Hills Bank, the United States Supreme Court held that debtors in chapter 13 (and presumably chapter 9 and 11 as well) are not entitled as of right to immediately appeal bankruptcy court orders denying confirmation of a proposed plan of reorganization. This ruling, although consistent with a majority of circuit courts of appeal that have considered the issue, reversed governing precedent in several circuit courts—including the Third Circuit, which reviews Delaware bankruptcy court decisions.