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Dear Members
After what seemed a very long January, February has flown by and Spring is nearly upon us. At INSOL Europe that means the start of our early conference season, with many events being planned, launched or about to happen. You may even be reading this newsletter at one of them!
Our 4th Annual Fraud Conference, 'The future of fraud: Is seeing believing?' is taking place this very week at the Royal College of Physicians, London, in conjunction with R3 and the Fraud Advisory Panel. This event will give delegates a chance to learn about AI and deepfakes, how AI is being used to stop fraud, and what acts are coming to combat fraud and cybercrime... and more besides. The chairs of our Anti-Fraud Forum, Carmel King (Grant Thornton, UK) and Bart Heynickx (Altius, Belgium) have worked hard on the programme and will be speaking during the day, as will our Vice President Frances Coulson (Wedlake Bell, UK).
Our EECC Conference returns in June with a seminar in the beautiful city of Krakow, Poland. The programme is currently being put together by by the Technical Committee, led by the EECC Co-Chairs Stela Ivanova (bnt attorneys in CEE, Bulgaria) and Georges-Louis Harang (Addleshaw Goddard (Europe), France). Registration is now open and you can get ahead of the game by reserving your place today.
This month's 'Inside Story' focuses on Poland and the Second Chance Directive... where at the time of writing, Poland is the only European country which has failed to implement the EU Restructuring Directive, despite discussing several drafts.
Ahead of our Annual Congress in Sorrento, Italy in October, we are currently progressing well with the technical programme on the theme of 'Sustainability in Distress'. Look out for registration opening next month.
The last chance to submit your proposals for the Academic Conference (to be held just prior to the Main Congress) is 1 March, so get your ideas in now and don't miss the chance to be part of the programme. Each year we publish a document detailing all the presentations from the conference which is another reason to take part as a speaker.
In other news, we report from the 63rd session of UNCITRAL in Vienna where Past President Frank Tschentscher (Deloitte Legal) and Council member Florian Bruder (DLA Piper) attended Working Group V on behalf of INSOL Europe and actively engaged in deliberations on the two current projects, namely asset tracing and recovery in insolvency proceedings and, further, the law applicable in (cross-border) insolvency proceedings.
Technical updates in the form of insolvency statistics in Turkey and crypto-currency in bankruptcy round out this months news... We hope enjoy reading!
Giorgio Corno
President, INSOL Europe
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Giorgio Corno
President of
INSOL Europe
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This issue is kindly
sponsored by:
DLA Piper is a global law
firm with lawyers located
in more than 40 countries
throughout the world.
www.dlapiper.com
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| EECC Conference 2024, Krakow, Poland: Registration Now Open! |
Save the date and register today!
We are delighted to announce that registration is now open for the INSOL Europe Eastern European Countries’ Committee Conference from 13 to 14 June 2024, which will take place in Krakow, Poland.
The technical programme is currently being put together by the Technical Committee, led by the EECC Co-Chairs Stela Ivanova (bnt attorneys in CEE, Bulgaria) and Georges-Louis Harang (Addleshaw Goddard (Europe), France). The committee consists of Pawel Kuglarz (Tatara & Partners, Poland), Klaudia Frątczak-Kospin (WKB Wierciński, Kwieciński, Baehr, Poland), Prof. Tomáš Richter (JŠK, advokátní kancelář/Prague University of Economics, Czech Republic), Alina Popa (CITR, Romania) and Roman-Knut Seger (BDO Restructuring, Germany). Visit our website for more details!
With thanks to our Main Sponsor:
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| INSOL Europe attends 63rd Session of UNCITRAL in Vienna |
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The 63rd session of the Working Group was held from 11–15 December 2023 in Vienna. INSOL Europe was represented by Past President Frank Tschentscher (Deloitte Legal) and Council member Florian Bruder (DLA Piper).
Members of the Working Group and observers to the session continued their deliberations on two current projects, namely asset tracing and recovery in insolvency proceedings and, further, the law applicable in (cross-border) insolvency proceedings.
INSOL Europe’s representatives engaged actively with both delegates and observers and shared practical experience and lessons learned from cross-border cases.
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Read the full report by Frank Tschentscher and Florian Bruder here.
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Renew your Membership and enjoy these Benefits
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| Visit our website for more details or contact Hannah Denney. |
| National Insolvency Statistics Update: Turkey |
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Due to economic conditions in 2018, the Turkish insolvency/restructuring regime was reshaped with the Law no. 7101 amending the Code on Execution and Insolvency no. 2004. The Law no. 7101 abrogated bankruptcy adjournment provisions and instead expanded and reconceptualized the concordat process. Since then, concordat appears as one of the main pillars of Turkish insolvency/restructuring regime. Burak Baydar (Partner at Moroğlu Arseven & INSOL Europe Country Coordinator) and Ibrahim Enes Altan (Associate at Moroğlu Arseven) report.
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Indeed, 1,551 companies applied for concordat in 2018, while 3,697 companies applied for the same in 2019, being the peak of all times. The number of companies seems to be decreasing slightly since 2020, however, the numbers are still considerable. Yet, the number of companies applying courts for concordat was 2,111 in 2020, 1,916 in 2021, 1,587 in 2022 and 1,504 in 2023. Over the five years, 1,223 of applicants became successful and restructured their debts, while 2,798 applications found baseless and 475 of them ruled to be bankrupt.
Shutdown of companies also gets higher over the years in Turkey. According to Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges, 14,050 companies rang down the curtain in 2019, while the number was 15,949 in 2020. The figures increased to 17,184 in 2021, and peaked at 24,303 in 2022 when the impact of Covid-19 pandemic was felt most. The November 2023 figure, being 20,716 shows that 2023 is not significantly different than 2022.
Even though the concordat process was facilitated with the amendment in the law in 2018, the number of bankruptcy proceedings did not show a drastic change. According to Ministry of Justice statistics, 592 bankruptcy proceedings have been filed in 2018, and the figure increased to 766 in 2019. The number of bankruptcy proceedings was 600, 525 and 458 in 2021, 2022 and 2023 respectively. Total number of bankruptcy proceedings was 4,551 with the existing files and 402 proceedings have been completed in the same year. 2023 figures are expected to be published around April 2024.
Further statistics from Turkey and other jurisdictions can be found on our website here.
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| Eurofenix: Focus on Crypto-Currency Exchanges & Bankruptcy |
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The Winter edition of Eurofenix is available to read, featuring association updates, conference news, in-depth articles and country reports.
The INSOL Europe Insolvency Tech & Digital Assets Wing's regular column features an article on ‘Cryptocurrency exchanges and the challenges of bankruptcy’ by Co-chairs David Orsula (Lawyer, Partner, bnt attorneys in CEE, Bratislava, Slovak Republic) and Max Mailliet (Founding Partner, E2M, Luxembourg), in a follow-up to their panel at the Annual Congress in Amsterdam last year, which discussed the current developments and what happens when a crypto exchange goes bankrupt.
If you would like to contribute an article to a future edition or are interested in advertising opportunities, please contact publication manager Paul Newson.
Eurofenix is kindly sponsored by Prof.Dr.Pannen
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Read the new edition here!
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| INSIDE Story: A 2nd Chance... for the 2nd Chance Directive in Poland |
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Almost all of the European Union Member States have already implemented the Restructuring Directive, also referred to as the Second Chance Directive. Unfortunately, at time of writing, Poland is the only country which has failed to do so, although several drafts have so far been discussed.
In Poland, a team of experts within the Ministry of Justice prepared the first bill which was subject to public consultations a long while ago.
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A lot of business organizations (also including the National Chamber of Insolvency Practitioners and the INSO Section of the Allerhand Institute), public entities as well as the courts submitted their positions on the draft. Later on, yet another draft was published, slightly changing its subject matter, by expanding the scope of the regulation, and thus requiring another round of consultations. Over the period of parliamentary elections in Poland in October 2023, Mateusz Morawiecki’s government sent this draft to the Parliament for consideration. However, the newly elected government of Donald Tusk decided in January 2024 to withdraw the draft bill and present it for further amendments. In summary, a lot of work has already been done, including the drafting of a very detailed report on the areas needed to be covered to ensure compliance with EU law requirements.
Paweł Kuglarz and Mateusz Kaliński of Tatara and Partners, Poland, write about what should be covered and what should be changed in their Inside Story.
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| The Fraud Conference 2024 - Last chance to register! |
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| Academic Forum Annual Conference: Call for Papers |
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Call for Papers
Academic Conference, Sorrento 2024
The Academic Forum of INSOL Europe will be hosting its 20th Annual Conference in Sorrento, Italy, on Wednesday 2 – Thursday 3 October 2024, immediately prior to INSOL Europe's Annual Congress taking place in Sorrento from 3-6 October 2024.
Expressions of interest are invited for the delivery of research papers and a presentation within the overall Academic Conference theme:
“The Evolution or Revolution of European Insolvency Law”
Expressions of interest should be sent by email on or before 1st March 2024
to Jennifer Gant, the Academic Forum's Deputy Chair,
by email at: jenniferl.l.gant@gmail.com on the submission form.
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The Academic Forum is pleased to acknowledge the generous sponsorship
of Edwin Coe LLP and their ongoing support of our activities
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| Annual Congress 2024, Sorrento, Italy: Save the Date! |
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Preparations are now underway for our next Annual Congress, to be held in Sorrento from 3-6 October 2024. We are pleased to announce that the 2024 Technical Committee will be chaired by Rita Gismondi (Gianni & Origoni, Italy; INSOL Europe Country Coordinator) and Bart de Moor (Strelia, Belgium; INSOL Europe Council member & Country Coordinator) and the other members will include:
- Andri Antoniou (CRI Group, Cyprus; INSOL Europe Country Coordinator)
- Giorgio Corno (Studio Corno Avvocati, Italy; INSOL Europe President)
- Incoronata Cruciano (Schiebe und Collegen, Germany; INSOL Europe Council member & Country Coordinator)
- Klaudia Fratczak-Kospin (WKB Wierciński, Kwieciński, Baehr, Poland; Co-Chair of the Young Members Group)
- Jan Lilius (Hannes Snellman Attorneys, Finland; INSOL Europe Council member & Country Coordinator)
- Justice Caterina Macchi (Civil Court of Milan, Italy; INSOL Europe Judicial Wing member)
- Sabina Schellenberg (Froriep, Switzerland; INSOL Europe Council member & Country Coordinator)
- Prof. Patrizia Riva (Studio Patrizia Riva, Italy; INSOL Europe Council member)
- Prof. Rodrigo Rodriguez (Universität Luzern, Switzerland; INSOL Europe Academic Forum Chair)
Information about the Annual Congress will be published on our website soon!
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With thanks to our Main Sponsor:
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We welcome feedback, news and story ideas for future newsletters.
Please send your suggestions to Paul Newson, CEO & Communications Manager,
email: paulnewson@insol-europe.org.
Follow us on Social Media and join the conversation:
 
Thanks to our General Sponsors
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| Disclaimer: This newsletter is sent to members of INSOL Europe. No responsibility legal or otherwise is accepted by INSOL Europe for any errors, omissions or otherwise. The opinions expressed in the articles that appear are not necessarily shared by any representative of INSOL Europe. |
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