The Court of Appeal decision in the Nortel case upheld the High Court ruling that FSD/CN liability is an expense of the administration and therefore ranks ahead of administrators' remuneration, floating charges and unsecured creditors. Much of the press coverage which has followed in the immediate aftermath seems to have assumed that the decision is a victory for "good" pensioners over the "bad" banks.

A guarantor can be made bankrupt where the terms of the guarantee create a debt obligation.

On Thursday, Ireland's Finance Minister Brian Lenihan released a "Minister's Statement on Banking" announcing new commitments to troubled Irish banks. The statement began: "It is an urgent and immediate priority to reinforce international market confidence in our ability and commitment to restore our banking system to health and to secure the long-term sustainability of our fiscal position." Toward that end, Mr. Lenihan announced increased commitments to banks and building societies.

Treasury makes banking insolvency rules: Treasury has made insolvency and administration rules covering building societies in England and Scotland and amended the English rules on banks in insolvency and administration and the Scottish rules on banking insolvencies. The English rules, among other changes, provide for the statement of proposals to be sent to FSA and FSCS and for the disapplication of set-off for protected deposits up to FSCS's statutory limit. The Scottish instruments apply to insolvencies of banks and building societies under the Banking Act 2009.

FSA made five sets of new rules at its March board meeting:

Treasury has published two orders made under the Insolvency Act 1986 and the Banking Act 2009. The orders are: