On 12 May 2021 the FCA issued finalised guidance for insolvency practitioners who are tasked with managing insolvencies of regulated firms.
Aiming to help insolvency practitioners understand how to deal with firms in line with FCA requirements, the guidance covers the process from end-to-end including expectations in the pre-insolvency stage and specific procedures relating to insolvencies and restructuring. The aim of the guidance is to assist with the minimising of the impact of a failure of a regulated firm
As a result of temporary provisions that have been in place since March 2020*, during the Covid period directors have been broadly protected from the risk of personal liability for wrongful trading. Those temporary provisions are due to end on 30 June, 2021 and as a result, the law on wrongful trading again becomes highly relevant.
Includes developments in relation to: ESG; CRR; COVID-19; IFPR; Basel III; Securitisation Regulation; LIBOR; and EMIR.
Click on the headings below to access each section:
HEADLINES
The pandemic has created a chaotic business environment in which it is has at times been practically impossible to make any definitive plans. Lockdown measures have changed regularly, legislation has been introduced and extended and the rules for conducting business (when it is even possible to trade) have varied across the UK and have at times been criticised by those most harshly effected as being arbitrary and unscientific. All of this has often happened at very short notice.
AML changes for court-appointed liquidators
Important changes for court-appointed liquidators to the regulations under the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act 2009 (Act) will come into force on 9 July 2021. These changes provide that, for a court-appointed liquidator:
Fallout from the global pandemic continues to throw light on the responsibilities of directors in times of financial distress. This briefing examines those duties in greater detail, particularly in relation to Guernsey’s company law.
Decisions, decisions
Directors owe duties to the companies they serve and ordinarily discharge those duties with reference to the interests of the companies’ members as a whole.
The Federal Government has recently announced that from 1 July 2021 the statutory minimum amount to serve a creditor’s statutory demand will increase from $2,000 to $4,000. The 21 day period within which a debtor must respond to a statutory demand and the personal liability on Directors for insolvent trading will remain the same.
I. Supreme Court: Entries made in balance sheet amount to acknowledgement of debt for the purpose of extending limitation under Section 18 of the Limitation Act, 1963. The Hon’ble Supreme Court (“SC”) has in its judgment dated April 15, 2021 (“Judgement”), in the matter of Asset Reconstruction Company (India) Limited v. Bishal Jaiswal & Another [Civil Appeal No.323/2021], held that entries in balance sheets amount to acknowledgement of debt for the purpose of extending limitation under Section 18 of the Limitation Act, 1963 (“1963 Act”).
Highlights:
In Sun Electric Power Pte Ltd v RCMA Pte Ltd (formerly known as Tong Teik Pte Ltd) [2021] SGCA 60 (“Sun Electric”), the Singapore Court of Appeal (per Justice Judith Prakash) addressed in its written ground of decision (“GD”) the questions of: (i) what is the applicable test for the purpose of determining insolvency under s 254(2)(c) of the Companies Act (Cap 50, 2006 Rev Ed) (“Companies Act”); and (ii) who should be the appropriate party to control the conduct of the appeal, as well as to bear the responsibility of any costs incurred during and after the appeal, following a company’s right