Dubai currently has no effective insolvency law. Try to imagine it: How would creditors recover their entitlements? Does it lead to more arbitration activity? Does it explain why the Dubai International Arbitration Centre received more than 300 new cases last year and why arbitration is increasingly used?

Insolvency Law—Is It Necessary?

The Court of Appeal has confirmed that the costs of complying with Financial Support Directions (“FSDs”) proposed to be issued to certain Nortel and Lehman companies by the Pensions Regulator (“TPR”) qualify as “super priority” administration expenses, payable in priority to unsecured creditors, floating charge holders and the administrators’ own fees.

The question

The number of international arbitrations involving the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre doubled between 2004 and 2008. The number of winding up petitions is also currently on the rise because of the poor global economic environment. This article discusses conflicts that may arise between the statutory insolvency regime and the contractual rights of parties to arbitrate their disputes in Hong Kong.

Can Arbitration Be Used To Circumvent Statutory Insolvency Regimes?

The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit recently held that redemptions of commercial paper made through the Depositary Trust Company (DTC) are entitled to the “safe harbor” protections afforded to settlement payments under Bankruptcy Code Section 546(e), and are, therefore, not preferential transfers, even though such payments were made prior to maturity.1 The Second Circuit is the first Circuit Court of Appeal to address the issue, which arises out of the Enron bankruptcy case.

Legal Framework

German Insolvency Law

The Court of Appeal has ruled that the trustees of two occupational defined benefit (DB) schemes can use a particular mechanism, known as a Headway agreement, to maximise the amount of s.75 debt payable by the employers.

In the case of Sarjeant and others v Rigid Group Ltd, both schemes commenced winding up in 2000. No insolvency event had occurred before the winding up in either case. The applicable legislation at the relevant time required the s.75 debt to be calculated on the MFR basis.

On September 27, Law 14/2013, on support to the internationalization of business, was approved (Spanish Official Gazette of September 28).  From its entry into force on October 18, the procedure for out-of-court settlement of payments will be implemented, which is a new mechanism of debt renegotiation prior to the declaration of insolvency and an alternative to the so-called “pre-insolvency”, aimed to individual entrepreneurs, freelancers and small and medium-sized businesses that have not yet been declared insolvent whose assets and liabilities meet certain re

On 18 March 2014, the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) issued Circular No. 09/2014/TT-NHNN (Circular 09) to amend and supplement a number of articles in Circular No. 02/2013/TT-NHNN regulating the classification of debt, the establishment and levels of risk reserves, and the use of reserves for dealing with risks during the operation of credit institutions and foreign bank branches.

Official Comm. of Unsecured Creditors of Arcapita, Bank. B.S.C. v. Bahr. Islamic Bank, No. 15-cv-03828 (S.D.N.Y. Mar. 30, 2016) [click for opinion]

The difference between debt and equity claims can cause confusion among lenders, creditors, and insolvency professionals alike. In Tudor Sales Ltd. (Re), the British Columbia Supreme Court provided further judicial guidance on this distinction.