As we send this final edition of Global Insight for 2018, Rick and I would like to thank you for your continued support of our multi-award-winning Global Restructuring Group. Undeterred by a back-drop of trade tariffs and Brexit, governments and professionals around the world have continued to try to develop laws and protocols to facilitate the best possible recoveries for creditors from cross-border financial distress. Since the dramatic events of 2008, jurisdictions have sought to bolster their insolvency laws, and many, to supplement them with pre-insolvency restructuring options.
PRA consults on capital adequacy. The UK Prudential Regulation Authority proposed changes to the PRA’s Pillar 2 framework for the banking sector, including changes to rules and supervisory statements. The proposed policy is intended to ensure that firms have adequate capital to support the relevant risks in their business and that they have appropriate processes to ensure compliance with the Capital Requirements Regulation and Capital Requirements Directive.
Basel and other regulators seem to regard credit risk as being under control and have identified reputational and IT risks – risk you cannot close off with prudential capital charges – as the sources of the next crisis. Another one being talked about is potential illiquidity for funds, which are buying more illiquid assets in the hunt for yield.
In the Q1 2014 edition of Global Insight, we discussed the progress already made in respect of the Proposed Amendments to the EC Insolvency Regulation as of April 2014. The European Parliament and the Council of the European Union have now considered the Commission’s proposed amendments.
In this article we will continue to focus on the progress made regarding:
INSOL Europe attended the 52nd session of Working Group V (Insolvency law) held in Vienna from 18 to 22 December 2018 in its capacity as an invited international non-governmental organisation (NGO) with observer status. Other observers included, inter alia, World Bank, European Investment Bank, European Banking Federation, the American Bar Association, the International Bar Association, INSOL International, International Insolvency Institute, European Law Institute.
We are experiencing a quiet restructuring market and relatively high corporate survival rates at a time when historical trends would suggest a period of increasing insolvency activity.
An attempt to reform and rationalize the Belgian Bankruptcy Act of 8 August 1997 and the Continuity of Enterprises Act of 31 January 2009 included the introduction of a "silent bankruptcy" that offered distressed companies the opportunity to prepare for a real bankruptcy discreetly and without any publicity, along the lines of the UK's pre-pack procedures.
While the bill was adopted in mid-July 2017 and will apply to insolvency proceedings opened on or after 1 May 2018, the attempt to include pre-pack procedures in the reform has failed.
This spring
The INSOL International Channel Islands Seminar took place on 13 September 2017 in Guernsey, where tensions rose high as jurisdictions battled it out for the crown of the "go-to" jurisdiction for cross border restructurings.
Alert The Impending First Revision to the EU Insolvency Regulation: An Update 16 December 2014 The latest draft of the First Revision published on 20 Nov. 2014 indicates measured but extensive amendments to the EU Insolvency Regulation (‘EIR’). The most significant is the EU policy shift evidenced by the proposal to extend the EIR’s application from its currently narrow and primarily liquidation-based proceedings to a broader range of measures that are focused on rescue and that have recently been implemented in various jurisdictions.