These regulations contain two provisions clarifying the regime applicable to SAREB (Company Managing the Assets derived from the Banking Restructuring) in its capacity as creditor in insolvency proceedings.

Spain takes its first step towards securing international interests in mobile equipment.

The ruling called for rescission of previously agreed valuations to divide a company’s assets into two portions in a process for total spin-off in favour of two pre-existing companies. One of the beneficiaries was ordered to refund the other beneficiary company (undergoing insolvency proceedings) the excess valuation the former h ad received during the total spin-off.

The Madrid and Barcelona Provincial Courts took different positions on the classification of a creditor’s credit in the insolvency of the joint and several guarantor: the former classed it as an insolvency credit; the latter classed it as a contingent claim.

These resolutions clarify the circumstances in which an appraisal certificate is required to create and amend mortgages following the reform of the Rules of Civil Law Procedure under Act 1/2013.

If severe losses and insolvency occur, the directors’ duty to seek wind -up no longer applies if the company files for insolvency and is declared insolvent. While the composition is being carried out, the duty to seek wind-up and the directors’ resulting liability will not arise.

This ruling clarifies the role of the directors’ corporate duties in the event that legal grounds can be attributed to the company for wind-up due to losses, and the obligation to file for insolvency if the company becomes insolvent.

The Supreme Court reiterates the doctrine in its rulings of February 12 and 19, 2013, although in this case, unlike the above rulings, in which the credits were classified as insolvency credits, it concluded that instalments resulting from one finance lease agreement falling due after the declaration of insolvency are claims against the insolvency estate.

In 2011, the Spanish legislator introduced the court-sanctioned refinancing agreement (‘Spanish Scheme’) in the Spanish insolvency system. While the introduction of the Spanish Scheme has been praised for providing new tools for debtors to reorganise out-of-court while addressing the collective action problem, certain of its provisions have made this instrument too rigid and, thus, ineffective for tackling Spanish restructurings.

Our government has a longstanding commitment to cutting red tape. One of the ways of doing this it seems is to propose an Act of Parliament running to 153 pages. Thus we are presented with the Deregulation Bill.

A few of the provisions of this Bill relate to insolvency. The most significant are:

Project Bank Accounts (PBA) are a payment mechanism based on ring-fenced bank accounts created to increase the security of contractors and sub-contractors in a building project. Their main benefits include security and speed of payment and protection of funds in potential insolvency. Sounds too good to be true? PBAs are becoming increasingly common, and with the Government commitment to use PBAs “unless there are compelling reasons not to do so”, their joint value in public sector contracts is expected to reach £4bn by this year.