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Dear Members

We have returned from our record-breaking Annual Congress in Amsterdam full of new contacts and brimming with ideas for the year ahead. It was so wonderful to reconnect with many of our members and meet new acquaintances, all of whom had nothing but praise for the amazing venue and outstanding technical sessions.

Many of our working groups and committees met and took the opportunity to discuss plans for the forthcoming months. There are many new Chairs too and we look forward to supporting them in their plans over the next few months and years.

Before the dust had even begun to settle on our Congress, we have already started planning next year's in Sorrento (2-5 October 2024) with a meeting of the Technical Committee (Left to right): Emmanuelle Inacio (France), Incoronata Cruciano (Germany), Patrizia Riva (Italy), Giorgio Corno (Italy), Andriane Antoniou (Cyprus), Bart de Moor (Belgium), Sabina Schellenberg (Switzerland) and Rita Gismondi (Italy).

Meanwhile, I am happy to announce that I will be speaking at a number of forthcoming events in the next few months, details of which can be found at the end of this newsletter.

I look forward to serving as your President and speaking with you all personally over the coming months. Please do not hesitate to contact me with any of your suggestions as to how we can improve our service to members. I await your call!

Tanti saluti!

Giorgio Corno
President, INSOL Europe

Giorgio Corno
President of
INSOL Europe

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

Navigating insolvency with trust and integrity in Amsterdam

Over two days in Amsterdam from 12-13 October 2023, a record number of INSOL Europe delegates met under the expert facilitation of Carmel King (Grant Thornton, UK) and Enda Lowry (Teneo, Ireland) with Barry Cahir (Beauchamps, Ireland) presiding over events and giving his swansong as President.

With two keynotes kicking off the first day, Erik Shoppen introduced the audience to the role of trust in facilitating interaction and Mathijs Bouman critiqued the approach of the international institutions to restructuring. Technical sessions began with a panel on “Making cross-border insolvency more efficient” before segueing into the break-out sessions on a diversity of themes from pre-pack proceedings, asset-tracing and recovery, procedures involving micro-enterprises and the role of creditors’ committees.

The afternoon then invited audience interaction for a “Cyber-Game”, simulating a cyber-incident affecting practitioners and clients, before closing with the final panels on “The real effects of failure” and “The impact of sanctions and insolvency for the protection of assets”.

Day Two began with a further keynote address, by Emeritus Professor Bob Wessels charting the course of Rembrandt’s business and private affairs with an insolvency flavour. The panels opened with views on “Cryptocurrency exchanges and insolvency”, “Cleaning up the Mess: How to deal with Contaminated Assets?” and “Insolvency and Ethics”.

Proceedings then closed with the induction of Frances Coulson as new Vice-President and Frank Tschentscher as an Honorary Member. A special mention was made for David Rubin with an award for his long-standing service, before the handover at conference’s end to Giorgio Corno (Studio Corno Avvocati, Italy) as the new President and a look forward to Sorento 2024.

Photographs of the whole Congress, including technical sessions, networking breaks and social functions can be found in the gallery section of our website.

With thanks to our Main Sponsor:

Charting the Perpetual Renewal of European Insolvency Law

The INSOL Europe Academic Forum Annual Conference took place in Amsterdam on 11-22 October with the exciting theme of “The Perpetual Renewal of European Insolvency Law”

New chair, Professor Rodrigo Rodriguez and new deputy chair, Dr. Jennifer Gant, welcomed the delegates to the Hotel Okura set against the outstanding cityscape of Amsterdam. The Annual Conference was attended by over 80 delegates from nearly 24 different jurisdictions.

Opening the event, Rodrigo welcomed delegates and thanked the sponsors Edwin Coe LLP for enabling talented speakers to be selected and to share their knowledge at the two-day event.

The sessions that followed captured some of the essential themes of insolvency and restructuring law today, including “The Ever-Evolving Landscape of Preventive Restructuring” and the “Softer Sides of Corporate Rescue: A Closer Look at Social Fairness and Public Interest”. At the end of the first day came the Gabriel Moss Memorial Lecture, which featured a presentation by Emeritus Professor Bob Wessels titled “As The Wheels Turns - On Paradigm Shift and New Dynamics in European Insolvency Law”. This charted changes past, present and future in this very dynamic area of research. The day then ended with the Welcome Reception and a convivial Academic Dinner.

Sessions on the second day started with “Harmonisation and Coordination in Cross-Border Insolvency and Restructuring”, before going on to “Modern Issues Affecting Corporate Insolvency”, as well as “Asset Tracing and Transaction Avoidance”. Events on the second day ended with the Edwin Coe Practitioners’ Forum discussing “The Changing Paradigm of Directors’ Duties” from academic and practice perspectives. The conference then closed with Jennifer Gant and Rodrigo Rodriguez thanking the sponsors, speakers and participants as well as looking forward to Sorrento 2024.

NB. Profiles, abstracts and presentation slides have been published on our website here.

With thanks to our Academic Sponsor:

INSOL Europe Council Meeting & Updates

INSOL Europe's Council met in Amsterdam to discuss the past 12 months and goals for the forthcoming year. Invited to the meeting for the first time were the new members who took their seats following the Council elections in September:

RESERVED SEATS
David Sequeria Dinis (Portugal), Patrizia Riva (Italy) and Simeon Gilchrist (UK) have began their first 3-year term, whilst Florian Bruder (Germany) began his second term.

NON-RESERVED (GENERAL) SEATS
Francisco Patricio (Portugal) stood down and was replaced by Incoronato Cruciano (Italian but living and working in Germany) for her first 3-year term.

Full details are on our website here.

2023 Edition of Yearbook Launched in Amsterdam

We are pleased to announced the publication of INSOL Europe’s second yearbook, following on from the inaugural publication in Dubrovnik in 2022:

Harmonisation and other Challenges for the Insolvency Profession in 2023

Download the 2023 Yearbook here

One of the main objectives of this and last year’s publication is to inspire and encourage young members of INSOL Europe to participate and to provide them with a platform to express their views. We are pleased to confirm that articles have been received from a number of authors that have not previously submitted articles for the Yearbook. The Editorial Board is happy to report that great contributions have been received from young lawyers from all over Europe and even from India.

Insolvencies have been on the rise over the past 12 months across Europe which, together with the ever-evolving legislation across the wider industry, means that it is essential for the sharing of views and considerations across the INSOL Europe membership. This year’s book provides critical insight on certain key areas.

This Yearbook contains contributions across three broad areas, namely: 1) The EU Harmonisation Proposal, 2) ESG & Corporate Governance vs. Insolvency, and 3) New Legislation Impacting the Insolvency Profession. The title of this Yearbook is “Harmonisation and other Challenges for the Insolvency Profession in 2023”, reflecting the evolving challenges faced across the Insolvency profession throughout the previous 12 months.

On 7 December 2022, the European Commission tabled its long-awaited proposal for a directive harmonising certain aspects of insolvency law. The proposed directive lays down common rules for all aspects related to insolvency proceedings. The impact of this harmonisation proposal will be far reaching and section 1 of this Yearbook provides some interesting and thoughtful articles on the impacts of this new proposal on a number of countries within the European Union.

Sections 2 and 3 of the Yearbook provide useful insight into Corporate Governance measures and maximising recovery for the benefit of creditors and the tools available across a number of countries. INSOL Europe would like to express its appreciation to all contributors for the time and effort they contributed to get this Yearbook published.

INSOL Europe and the Editorial Board encourage you to read all contributions. We hope you find this Yearbook enjoyable and informative and wish you many pleasant reading hours.

National Insolvency Statistics Update: Spain

Adrian Thery of Garrigues, INSOL Europe’s Country Coordinator for Spain & Carlos Herrero Tejedor of Garrigues report on recent statistics from Spain.

Bankruptcy proceedings:
The first two quarters since the entry into force of the Spanish transposition of the Directive (EU) 2019/1023 of 20 June 2019, on restructuring and insolvency (the “Directive”), have seen an increase on the number of bankruptcy proceedings opened by both natural and legal persons.

This is due not only to the approval of a revision of the Spanish Insolvency Act, but most importantly because of the end of the Covid regulations imposing a moratorium on the duty to file for bankruptcy, which ended effectively on June 30, 2022. Hence, q4 2022 saw a year-on year (“YoY”) increase of bankruptcies opened of 133.24%, reaching a total of 5,544 new proceedings; and q1 2023 saw a 67.64% YoY increase, for a total amount of 4,895 new proceedings. Comparing q4 2022 to pre-Covid levels (i.e. q4 2019), there has been an increase of 141.67%; while q1 2023 has seen a 131.33% increase since q1 2020. Natural person bankruptcies have seen the highest increase of all, reaching 4,407 new proceedings in q4 2022 (meaning a 204.35% YoY increase and a 315.75% increase since pre-pandemic levels of q4 2019) and 3,983 in q1 2023 (meaning a 269.48% YoY increase and a 263.08% increase since pre-pandemic levels of q1 2020), whereas legal person bankruptcies have remained somewhat stable, reaching 1,137 new proceedings in q4 2022 (a 22.39% YoY increase but a 7.86% decrease since pre-pandemic levels), and 912 new proceedings in q1 2023 (a 18.93% YoY decrease and a 10.50% decrease since pre-pandemic levels). In q4 2022 all the main economic sectors show a YoY increase: industry (14.5% YoY), construction (8.5% YoY) and services (27.7% YoY). Current figures, however, are lower than (but close to) pre-pandemic levels in both q4 2022 and q1 2023.

Pre-insolvency proceedings:
Year 2022, with 172 filings for the “homologation of refinancing agreements” (i.e. the Spanish pre-insolvency proceedings prior to the transposition of the Directive), shows a significant increase in pre-insolvency proceedings, both YoY (63.8% increase compared to 2021) and with regards to pre-Covid levels (34.4% increase since 2019). Furthermore, the revision of the Spanish Insolvency Act set forth a new pre-insolvency proceeding (the “homologation of restructuring plans”), which has further increased recourse to these instruments. The first seven months of 2023 have seen 225 filings for the homologation of restructuring plans, which already constitutes a 30.8% increase compared to the whole year 2022.

Solvent liquidation proceedings:
The number of solvent dissolved companies in Spain reached 7,806 in q4 2022 and 8,971 in q1 2023, resulting in a YoY increase of 17.61%, and 7.34%, respectively. With respect to pre-Covid levels, solvent liquidation proceedings showed an increase of 25.36% by q4 2022, and of 26.12% by q1 2023. The most relevant sectors show different numbers with regards to solvent liquidations: industry saw a 2.64% YoY decrease in q4 2022, and a 3.61% YOY increase in q1 2023; construction saw a YoY increase in q4 2022 by 10.73% and in q1 2023 by 2.19%; and services saw a YoY increase in q4 2022 by 22.82% and in q1 2023 by 9.63%. Compared to pre-Covid levels all the sectors recorded higher numbers

Further statistics from Spain and other jurisdictions can be found on our website here.

Eurofenix Autumn Edition Out Now!

The Autumn issue of Eurofenix is out now!

➡️ Read it online here.

This edition is packed with relevant, informative and essential information on insolvency and restructuring topics from around the world including:

> Harmonisation & Creditor Representation in France
> New rules in France for Bond-holders
> Annual Congress Preview
> Law Upgrades in Cyprus & Czech Republic
> Reforms in Luxembourg
> Chapter 11 & Tort Claims
> Country reports
> Event news and more

Also INSOL Europe's out-going President Barry Cahir reflects on his aims and achievements during his year as president.

Distribution in UK Corporate Insolvency.... Who gets the pie?

It has been over 20 years since data was analysed to assess the rate of return to creditors, specifically those unsecured, during corporate insolvency. The last similar research was by R3 in 2001. This Inside Story by Asad Khan (Doctoral Researcher, University of Nottingham, UK) provides an overview of a recent empirical study conducted by the author.

A company usually goes insolvent when it cannot satisfy its debts. There are around 20,000 corporate insolvencies in the UK every year. During distribution, fixed charge holders are repaid first, followed by provisions for expenses, preferential creditors, prescribed part contributions, floating charge holders, unsecured creditors and, finally, deferred claimants.

In 2001, R3 found that unsecured creditors received on average less than 7% repayment of debt and got nothing in over 75% of corporate voluntary liquidations (‘CVLs’). The research was based on surveys and is fairly dated. Arguably, there was a need to provide updated statistics that examines a creditor’s realistic prospect of repayment during insolvency. This may not only help parties assess their scope for returns and contract accordingly, but it could also help reveal areas for development to the regime.

Read the full story by Asad Khan here.

Read all past Inside Stories on our website here.

4th YANIL Research Workshop: Academic Future in Safe Hands

On 10 and 11 October 2023, the Younger Academics Network on Insolvency law (YANIL) organised a Research Workshop for the fourth time. At the workshop, hosted by Prof. Rolef de Weijs at the University of Amsterdam, 10 younger academics discussed their research with some 30 attendees in total.

The presentations touched on a broad variety of topics, primarily in the field of restructuring and insolvency law, but also the cross-over with company law, private international law and contract law. Presenters included Abbas Abbasov (Azerbaijan), Michelle Kluge (Germany), Marco Novara (Italy), Dorota Nowacka (Italy), Olivier Roodhooft (Belgium), Vasile Rotaru (UK), Gauthier Vandenbossche (Belgium), Isabelle Vanwalleghem (Belgium) and Filippo Viola (Italy).

The workshop provided the opportunity for vibrant debates with peers and experienced academics on research design, methodology and, of course, interim research findings. In addition, the workshop succeeded in connecting many younger academics from across Europe and beyond. The workshop was organised by the YANIL Board and was made possible with the kind support of the Foundation Bob Wessels Insolvency Law Collection

Fraud Conference 2024 - Early bird tickets on sale now!

Returning for a fourth year on 29 February 2024, the Fraud Conference brings together world class speakers including policy makers, insolvency experts, fraud specialists and academics, offering unique insights on developments in the world of fraud. Hosted by the Fraud Advisory Panel, INSOL Europe and R3 this year’s event will be live and in person.

This year the conference will be chaired by Arun Chauhan (Fraud disputes specialist & financial crime compliance lawyer, Tenet & Trustee Director Fraud Advisory Panel).

A wide range of sessions are being planned to include:

AI and Deepfake: In this session our expert speaker will explore the role of AI and how fraud can appear in our daily lives.
The Tools of the future: Our speaker will demonstrate the ways the AI are being put into use stopping fraud and the opportunities this emerging technology present.
Is this the near future of fraud? The failure to prevent fraud offences and the online safety bill are two new and evolving pieces of legislation designed to address fraud and cyber-crime. But how will they work? This panel of experts will share their thoughts and experiences around the legislation and the role failure to prevent fraud could play in the future.
Plus 4 x breakout sessions covering a range of hot topics.

Register here today and save 15% with the early-bird discount until 1 December.

Upcoming Joint Events & Conferences - Save the dates!

2-3 November 2023: ABI 2023 International Insolvency & Restructuring Symposium:
Catarina Serra will be the keynote speaker on the Friday, followed by a panel hosted by INSOL Europe.

24-25 November 2023: XXX Convegno Nazionale di Studi Conference:
Crisis, Entrepreneurs, and Responsibility: The Crisis Code Amidst Old and New Challenges. INSOL Europe President, Giorgio Corno, will be speaking.

5 December 2023: ARE & CEDAG Conference:
Cross-views on the EU’s various newly introduced restructuring plan regimes. INSOL Europe President, Giorgio Corno, will be speaking.

Visit our website for details and registration links.

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.

Thanks to our General Sponsors

Please contact Hannah Denney for sponsorship opportunities.

INSOL Europe, PO Box 7149, Clifton, Nottingham. NG11 6WD

www.insol-europe.org

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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.