In positive news for financiers and lenders, the Irish Government has signed an order which gives immediate effect to the “Alternative A” insolvency provisions of the Cape Town Convention.

The Irish Government has signed an Order giving the Cape Town Convention Alternative A insolvency remedy force of law in Ireland.

The Cape Town Convention creates an international uniform body of law applicable to interests in aircraft assets for the protection of financiers, lessors and conditional sellers and to establish basic remedies available to them under agreements relating to the aircraft assets.

The High Court has recently expressed concern that distressed borrowers are being duped into paying money to the anonymous promoters of schemes, which purport to protect them from enforcement by lenders but are actually ‘utterly misguided and spurious’.

There are a number of schemes being promoted at the moment that supposedly protect borrowers in arrears from enforcement by their lender.

Two recent developments may have rendered the Irish legal system less attractive to creditors. We examine the scope of these developments and the likely impact on debt collection activity in Ireland.

Rate of interest of judgment debts falls by 6%

The rate of interest on judgment debts has been reduced from 8% to 2%, with effect from 1 January 2017, in accordance with the Courts Act 1981 (Interest on Judgment Debts) Order 2016 (S.I. No 624 of 2016) (the “Order”).

In SPV Optimal Osus Limited -v- HSBC Institutional Trust Services (Ireland) Limited & Ors the Court of Appeal rejected an appeal of a High Court decision dismissing proceedings as being frivolous and vexatious and bound to fail on the basis that the proceedings against the defendants were contrary to public policy, void and unenforceable as a matter of law since the assignment of the right to litigate third party claims amou

In the case of In Re Dunne (A Debtor) [2017] IEHC 59, High Court, Baker J, 6 February 2017 the High Court refused an application by debtors under Section 115A of the Personal Insolvency Acts 2012 to 2015 to overturn a secured creditor's (PTSB) objection to a Personal Insolvency Arrangement (PIA). The debtors had appealed from a Circuit Court decision upholding PTSB's objection.

Facts

In two recent decisions the High Court considered the provisions of Section 115A(9) of the Personal Insolvency Acts 2012 to 2015 (The Acts). The Section provides that a Court can give effect to a Personal Insolvency Arrangement (PIA) despite it having been rejected by creditors. It was designed to enable a qualifying debtor to retain their principal private residence in certain circumstances.

We examine the scope of the Pensions (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2017 and look at the potential impact on defined benefit pension schemes in Ireland, if enacted.

Facts

In Leahy v Bailey & ors [2016] IEHC 592, High Court, Keane J, 28 October 2016, the liquidator sought a declaration of restriction against the three respondent directors pursuant to Section 819(1) of the Companies Act 2014.

Facts