I. WHY THIS TOPIC IS IMPORTANT
I. WHY THIS TOPIC IS IMPORTANT
This Legal Update explores the considerations that a warehouse lender should bear in mind when deciding whether to provide borrowing base credit for participation interests and defining eligible participation interests.
Example of Eligibility Criterion:
Such Collateral Loan is not a participation in a debt obligation or a loan unless it is an Eligible Participation Interest.
Why Do Lenders Care if an Underlying Asset is a Participation Interest?
I. WHY THIS TOPIC IS IMPORTANT
In modern supply chains, companies depend on reliable suppliers. When a company’s direct supplier (contractor) starts facing financial difficulties, problems can escalate quickly. If the contractor can no longer pay its own upstream supplier, that upstream supplier may halt deliveries - triggering production shutdowns that cascade through the entire supply chain. This, in turn, may lead to (actually financially sound) downstream companies facing substantial liability exposure vis-à-vis their own customers.
Der EuGH hat mit Urteil vom 19.03.2026 (C-43/25, „SML Maschinen") entschieden, dass sich der Empfänger von Rückzahlungen auf ein Gesellschafterdarlehen nicht auf Art. 13 EuInsVO 2000 (bzw. Art. 16 EuInsVO n.F.) berufen kann, um ein Rückforderungsverlangen des Insolvenzverwalters abzuwehren, wenn dieses der Durchsetzung des insolvenzrechtlichen Forderungsnachrangs dient.
Sachverhalt
The Government’s Insolvency Service has issued its insolvency figures for January 2026 which show that construction is the UK’s worst performing sector for insolvencies in 2025. This is the fourth year in a row that construction has held that position. Construction accounted for 17% of insolvencies in 2025 ahead of retail on 16% and hospitality on 14%. The total number of insolvencies in the UK construction sector was 3,728 but was lower than the 2024 figure for the sector of 4,032 insolvencies.
In early November 2025 one of the biggest UK’s largest private building control firms Assent Building Control Compliance Limited, along with its subsidiaries Oculus Building Consultancy Limited and LB Building Control Limited, (together “Assent”) ceased trading and subsequently entered liquidation. The collapse of such a major player in the building control sector will likely have wide ramifications throughout the whole construction industry, and particularly for HRB developments and the BSR’s Gateway 2 Application process.
In this article, we examine (1) the new regime for safeguarding of customer funds applying to UK payment and electronic money institutions, (2) the impact these reforms will have on those firms and (3) in particular, the indirect effect the reforms will have on banks holding safeguarded funds and insolvency practitioners who manage the insolvency of a failed payment or electronic money institution.