1. SOLVENCY II
1.1 Solvency II Directive review: Provisional political agreement reached on proposed Solvency II amending Directive
On 31 October 2023, the Federal Decree-Law No. 51 of 2023 on Financial Restructuring and Bankruptcy (the Bankruptcy Law) was published in the UAE Gazette. The Bankruptcy Law replaces the Federal Law No. 9 of 2016 on Bankruptcy (as amended) (the 2016 Law).
The aim of the Bankruptcy law is to introduce a modern, streamlined and business-friendly approach to restructuring in the UAE (except for the DIFC and ADGM freezones, which have their own insolvency regimes).
Key Changes
R (on the application of Palmer) (Appellant) v Northern Derbyshire Magistrates’ Court and another (Respondents) [2023] UKSC 38
On appeal from: [2021] EWHC 3013
Appeals under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act (BIA) generally result in an automatic stay of the order under appeal—a potentially costly and disruptive outcome. Accordingly, the BIA requires by default that an interested party first seek leave to appeal a lower court decision unless its appeal meets a set of prescribed circumstances that appears broad but, in practice, has been construed very narrowly by the courts (i.e., making it difficult to obtain leave to appeal). In Peakhill Capital Inc. v.
Payments made by a debtor which disadvantage its creditors may be void and if so must be returned. This applies where the debtor and the recipient of the payment knew that the debtor was unable to pay its debts.
Introduction
Throughout the year, we have been keeping you up to date on noteworthy developments across the region with our Regional Round-up Publications. As we enter 2024, we are pleased to share with you our 2023 year-in-review of the Regional Round-up for our Regional Offices in the Rajah & Tann Asia network.
Here’s a due process question that’s percolating before the U.S. Supreme Court and a related mediation issue:
There were 64 filings under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (Canada) in 2023, which is an approximately 64% year-over-year increase. While this surge is interesting in and of itself, we believe that the volume of 2023 CCAA filings is also notable for the rich data it makes available to insolvency professionals. We used this opportunity to better understand how the CCAA was being employed by reviewing each filling.
The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) has come out with certain measures pertaining to the professional services rendered and availed byinsolvency professionals (IPs), and the framework for insolvency professional entities (IPEs).[1]