The UAE has pioneered a new insolvency regime for individuals or natural persons with the issuance of the stand-alone Insolvency Law No. 19 of 2019 (Insolvency Law), which has come to effect as of 30 November 2019.
The Insolvency Law is intended to provide sufficient protections to natural or civil persons who are facing financial distress and are unable to settle their debts, unlike the UAE Bankruptcy Law which regulates commercial companies and individuals considered as traders under the Commercial Transactions Code.
The concept of "financial restructuring" was introduced in Turkey following the country's currency crisis in the summer of 2018. Financial restructuring, defined as revising a debtor's financial structure and redetermining its financial strategy, became the major agenda of Turkish financial institutions. Regulators intervened immediately and began working to form the legal infrastructure for restructuring.
Recent developments
UNCITRAL recently published its Model Law on Recognition and Enforcement of Insolvency Related Judgments ("MLREIJ"), with a recommendation that nations adopt it into their legislation. MLREIJ is the first model law that specifically provides a framework for recognition and enforcement of insolvency related judgments for nations that adopt it. The adoption of this model law might make cross-border insolvencies more predictable, complete and efficient.
The Russian government has introduced a bankruptcy moratorium with effect from 1 April to 1 October 2022 in respect of all Russian legal entities and individuals (“Persons“) except for certain residential real estate developers.
The moratorium is intended to protect Russian debtors against creditors’ claims and provide support for players on the Russian market given the challenging environment they operate in.
The key consequences of the introduction of the moratorium regime are as follows:
Recent development
With a presidential decision numbered 4299 and dated 14 July 2021, the effectiveness of Temporary Article 32 of the Banking Law regulating the financial restructuring transactions and related incentives and tax exemptions contemplated under the Framework Agreement has been extended for an additional two years. Please refer to the following links for our alerts on the introduction of Temporary Article 32 and the Framework Agreement:
What’s new?
In brief On 1 January 2021, the Federal Government's post-COVID small business restructuring reform package1 came into effect.
In brief
As of 19 October 2020, the changes to the Bankruptcy Code of Ukraine became effective.
What’s new
From 17 October 2020, and for the quarantine period, the following changes are introduced in the bankruptcy procedure:
In brief
The Insolvency, Restructuring and Dissolution Act (the IRDA) commenced on 30 July 2020. The IRDA is an omnibus legislation that consolidates Singapore's personal insolvency, corporate insolvency and debt restructuring laws into a single legislation. The IRDA will replace the Bankruptcy Act and the corporate insolvency and restructuring provisions in the Companies Act, each of which will be repealed. The IRDA also introduces new changes to the insolvency framework in Singapore.
Key changes to Singapore insolvency framework
In brief
The Chairman of the Supreme Court has just issued a decree on judicial guidelines for bankruptcy and court supervised restructuring (PKPU) processes ("Supreme Court Decree"), which sets out how Commercial Court judges are to manage bankruptcy and PKPU cases.
The Singapore Ministry of Law will introduce the COVID-19 (Temporary Measures) Bill (the Bill) in Parliament next week to address the impact of COVID-19 on businesses and individuals' ability to fulfil their contractual obligations. The Bill will also make some temporary changes relating to bankruptcy and insolvency.
The Bill will apply to various categories of contracts, including: