Statutory Erosion of Secured Creditors’ Rights: Some Insights from the United Kingdom
by | posted in: Bankruptcy Administration and Jurisdiction, Cramdown and Priority | 0

By Adrian Walters, IIT Chicago-Kent School of Law

The prevailing wisdom is that Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings have been captured by secured creditors with the consequence that many Chapter 11s are little more than glorified nationwide federal foreclosures through which secured creditors exit by means of a section 363 sale.  Some scholars worry that secured creditor capture of Chapter 11 leads to asset deployment decisions that do not produce welfare-maximizing outcomes for creditors as a whole.

In an article forthcoming in the 2015 University of Illinois Law Review, I do not question this prevailing wisdom.  Instead, I seek to argue, by reference to experience in the United Kingdom, that if we are serious about curbing secured creditors’ control of bankruptcy proceedings through bankruptcy law reform, we have to acknowledge and understand the ways in which secured creditors respond to reforms that are adverse to their interests.

The article identifies four ways in which lenders may be expected to adjust to “adverse” bankruptcy reform: (i) meta bargaining; (ii) adjustments to pre-bankruptcy behaviour; (iii) transactional innovation; and (iv) shape shifting. The article then illustrates how lenders in England and Wales have successfully adjusted to sustained statutory attempts to undermine their bankruptcy priority by carving value out of their collateral, and to erode their control rights by abolishing their right to appoint an administrative receiver over floating charge collateral.

Click here to read more.

The Evolution of European Insolvency Law Part 3: The EU Parliament’s Report on the Amendment of the European Insolvency Regulation (EIR)
by | posted in: International and Comparative | 0

By Robert Arts and Dr. Björn Laukemann (Maîtr. en droit)

Robert Arts Laukemann PicAfter the external evaluation of European Insolvency Law (Part 1) and the European Commission’s proposal for the amendment of the EIR (Part 2), the report of the European Parliament (EP) on this proposal marked the latest stage of the reform process.

While the Parliament generally supports the changes proposed by the Commission and many of its amendments simply clarify wording or align the text with the existing legislation, the draft report made some noteworthy revisions:

  1. To prevent abusive venue-shopping, the draft requires the factual circumstances of the debtor’s centre of main interests to be established three months prior to the opening of insolvency proceedings.
  2. While welcoming the introduction of synthetic proceedings (i.e. the granting of special rights to groups of local creditors in order to avoid the opening of secondary insolvency proceedings) the EP strengthens the procedural standing of the local creditors by:

(i) granting them the power to challenge any decision to postpone or refuse the opening of secondary proceedings;

(ii) allowing them to petition the court conducting the main proceeding to take protective measures, e.g. by prohibiting the removal of assets or the distribution of proceeds, or by ordering the administrator to provide security; and

(iii) empowering the court to appoint a trustee to safeguard their interests.

  1. The coordination and cooperation between administrators appointed in different proceedings within a group of companies is further enhanced by the implementation of an independent coordinator who, for instance, is empowered to present a non-binding, court-approved group coordination plan, to mediate in disputes between insolvency representatives of group members, or to request a stay of proceedings with respect to any member of the group.

As a result, the Parliament report  aims to strengthen the role of main insolvency proceedings while still sufficiently considering interests of local creditors and to improve coordination within groups of companies. The draft is expected to pass the European Council by the end of this year.

See the full report here.

The Evolution of European Insolvency Law Part 2: The EU Commission’s Proposal for the Amendment of the European Insolvency Regulation
by | posted in: International and Comparative | 0

Author: Dr. Björn Laukemann, Maître en droit (Aix-en-Provence), Senior Research Fellow at the Max Plack Institute Luxembourg for International, European and Regulatory Procedural Law

Laukemann PicFollowing the external evaluation (Part 1), the EU Commission released a proposal for the amendment of the European Insolvency Regulation in December 2012, aimed at enhancing the efficiency of cross border insolvency proceedings and thus ensuring a proper “functioning of the internal market and its resilience in economic crises”. The following main changes were proposed:

  1. The Regulation’s scope of application now includes hybrid proceedings (“debtor in possession”), pre-insolvency proceedings and debt discharge proceedings for natural persons. The Commission will scrutinize whether specific national proceedings fall within the revised scope.
  2. Retaining the jurisdictional criterion of the debtor’s centre of main interests, the proposal clarifies the criteria and improves the procedural framework for determining the competent court (examination ex officio, information of foreign creditors and creditors’ right to judicial review).
  3. The proposal empowers the court to refuse to open secondary proceedings (i.e. parallel territorial proceedings opened in the Member State of the debtor’s establishment) if they are unnecessary to protect the interests of local creditors, and thus to reduce detrimental effects on rescue efforts (abolishment of the winding-up-requirement; improved cooperation and communication between main and secondary proceedings, also on a court-to-court basis).
  4. Member States are required to establish publicly accessible and interconnected electronic registers in which the relevant court decisions are published.
  5. The implementation of standard forms will facilitate the lodging of claims for foreign creditors.
  6. A framework for the coordination of insolvency proceedings within groups of companies is set up (obligation of courts and liquidators to cooperate and communicate with each other; extending certain rights of administrators to proceedings of other group members, e.g. the right to be heard, to participate, to request a stay of proceedings and to propose a rescue plan).

Part 3 will address the reactions of the European Parliament and the Council and comment on ongoing and future developments.

 

The Evolution of European Insolvency Law: Part 1: The Heidelberg/Luxembourg/Vienna Report
by | posted in: International and Comparative | 0

Authors: Prof. Burkhard Hess (Luxembourg/Heidelberg), Univ.-Prof. Paul Oberhammer (Vienna/London/St. Gallen) and Prof. Thomas Pfeiffer (Heidelberg), summarized by team member Robert Arts

The first step towards the upcoming amendment of the European Insolvency Regulation was an evaluation of its application since its adoption in 2002. The Regulation itself required the evaluation to make sure that European Insolvency Law keeps up with the constant changes to the multitude of national insolvency regimes. A team from the Max Planck Institute Luxembourg (Hess), Heidelberg University (Pfeiffer), and the University of Vienna (Oberhammer) conducted the research and collected empirical data in all 26 concerned Member States.

The evaluation shows that the defining principle of the Regulation, that of universality (single proceeding and single insolvency statute with universal effect and recognition) has proven to be a great boon for the procedural handling of cross-border insolvencies in Europe. The report consequently proposes to further strengthen universality by reducing the possibility of separate, territorial proceedings.

Moreover, the report finds that widening the scope of application (by inclusion of pre-, hybrid and annex proceedings and by providing – for the first time ever – a framework for collaboration within group of company insolvencies), is necessary to keep the Regulation in line with the ongoing shift from liquidation towards the reorganization of companies.

The report also addresses technical difficulties arising from cross border insolvencies – e.g., the lodging of claims, the need for communication amongst judges and administrators and the information deficit of foreign creditors.

The entire report can be found here. Part 2 will cover the proposal for the amendment of the Regulation by the European Commission, which adopted many of the report’s suggestions.