The Business Continuity Act of 31 January 2009 (the "Act") creates a variety of flexible tools to promote business recovery. This update focuses on the new judicial (i.e., court-supervised) reorganisation proceedings (as opposed to out-of-court workouts and court-supervised sales of the business).
Simplified access to proceedings
As discussed in our previous update, the Business Continuity Act of 31 January 2009 (the “Act”) provides for various options to facilitate business recovery. One such option is the court-supervised sale of (all or part of) the debtor’s business.
The introduction of the court-supervised sale is an important development. Such sales are likely to become a popular option under the Act for two reasons.
On 6 November 2008, the Belgian House of Representatives adopted a bill on the continuity of companies. Although the Senate has exercised its right to examine the bill and may propose amendments until 26 January 2009, we thought it useful to go ahead and address this new bill, which will replace the Act of 17 July 1997 on composition with creditors (Wet op het gerechtelijk akkoord/Loi sur le concordat judiciaire).
The Belgian legislature once again recently improved the statutory framework for business restructuring. Thus, any business - a broad concept that covers not only companies and non-profits but also independent contractors - in financial difficulty may request the opening of judicial reorganisation proceedings (procédure en réorganisation judiciaire), commonly referred to by insiders as "PRJ".
28 November 2018
NautaDutilh
Recovery and Resolution (Insurers) Act
FCS Financial Law
On 18 January 2017, EU Regulation n°655/2014 establishing a European Account Preservation Order ("EAPO") procedure became fully applicable in all Member States, with the exception of Denmark and the United Kingdom. |
NautaDutilh
Introduction of senior non-preferred debt in the Netherlands
3 April 2018
FCS Financial Law
KEY TAKEAWAYS
A new EU Directive adopted in December 2017 will enable EU banks, large investments firms and relevant group companies (e.g. holding companies) to issue so-called 'senior non-preferred' debt instruments.
Such senior non-preferred debt will rank senior to regulatory capital instruments (CET1, AT1 and Tier 2) and other subordinated debt, but junior to the institution's senior debt (such as deposits and ordinary creditors).
On 18 January 2017, Regulation (EU) No 655/2014 (the "Regulation") will become fully applicable. It will henceforth be possible to obtain in any EU Member State, with the exception of Denmark and the United Kingdom, a preservation order for bank accounts of a debtor situated in another Member State.
The Regulation introduces at the European level a certain degree of transparency in terms of the debtor's assets.
Earlier intervention in case of distress to preserve value and save jobs. That is the goal of the proposed 'EU Business Restructuring Directive', which was presented yesterday by the European Commission and aims to ensure a minimum harmonization of restructuring procedures within the European Union.
Legislation implementing the EU Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive ("BRRD") in Netherlands law and facilitating the application of the EU Single Resolution Mechanism Regulation ("SRM Regulation") was approved by the Upper Chamber of the Netherlands parliament on 10 November 2015 and is expected to enter into force before the end of this year. The new law – the "European Framework for the Recovery and Resolution of Credit Institutions and Investment Firms Implementation Act" – will be referred to below as the "Implementation Act".