FSA has published the statement it made to the US bankruptcy court examiner on the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. It has published the statement in the public interest, although it contains information that would otherwise have been confidential. The statement explains FSA’s actions and conversations in respect of the potential purchase by Barclays of the company in September 2008.

FSA supported HMRC in its action to wind up The Freedom SIPP, a SIPP operator. It believed this was appropriate to fulfil its consumer protection objective.

In Re: Nortel Networks Corp. the Ontario Superior Court of Justice considered an application for court approval of the Bidding Procedures pertaining to the sale of Nortel’s “Layer 4-7” business, as well as approval of a “Stalking Horse” bidding process.

Prior to filing for protection under the CCAA, Nortel decided that the Layer 4-7 business should be sold. Shortly after filing, Nortel agreed to enter into an Asset Purchase Agreement with Radware for the purchase of the Layer 4-7 business (the “Purchase Agreement”).

Section 147 of the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act (“BIA”) provides that the Superintendent’s Levy is applied to defray the supervisory expenses of the Superintendent, will be charged on dividend payments made by the trustee.

The US Court has approved a bankruptcy settlement under which a US-listed parent company is liable for the buy-out deficits in its UK subsidiary's pension schemes. Key to the court's considerations was the issue of Financial Support Directions (FSDs) by the UK Pensions Regulator against the US parent company.

The court decided that:

Pursuant to an Order in Council dated July 4, 2008, July 7, 2008 was established as the date that certain of the provisions of S.C. 2005, c. 47 (the "Insolvency Reform Act 2005") and S.C. 2007, c. 36 (the "Insolvency Reform Act 2007") came into force. The Wage Earner Protection Program Act (the "WEPPA") as well as certain of the amendments to the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act (the "BIA") made by the Insolvency Reform Act 2005 and the Insolvency Reform Act 2007 are, as a result, now in force.

Last week saw the government further extend COVID-19 emergency insolvency provisions until 31 March 2021. Since April, these have:

An unfortunate but inevitable consequence of the economic downturn induced by COVID-19 is that an increasing number of construction companies will enter into insolvency. In Bresco Electrical Services Ltd (in liquidation) v. Michael J Lonsdale (Electrical) Ltd [2020] UKSC 25, the Supreme Court has provided some respite to contractors in liquidation by finally confirming their unfettered right to refer construction disputes for resolution by adjudication.

Receivables financiers, lenders taking security assignments over contractual rights, participants in the secondary loan market and others have an interest in:

This update deals with “onerous property” and the issues involved when a trustee in bankruptcy disclaims onerous land, including the potential impact on lenders.

Disclaimer of onerous land by a trustee in bankruptcy

At any time, the trustee of a bankrupt estate may disclaim land which is burdened with onerous covenants or is unsaleable or not readily saleable (s 133 of the Bankruptcy Act 1966 (Cth)).