Marcel Groenewegen
President of
INSOL Europe

This year’s conference took an unusual form, prompted by the advent of the coronavirus and restrictions on mass gatherings. Echoing Vivaldi’s famous oeuvre, the main event took place in four parts (like the seasons) on successive Thursdays in the month of October.

Titled “Towards a New World”, perhaps a pre-emptive look at the shape of things to come, the sessions grouped together keynote speakers, discussion panels and Q&A on very topical themes set against the context of the health issues of today, featuring contributions from eminent academics, judges and practitioners.

As such, reflecting concerns arising in 2020 and likely to last into the near future, the themes of the webinars ranged from the state of play with the Preventive Restructuring Directive, to relief offered to directors from the spectre of wrongful trading during the pandemic, to the reshaping of procedures, including CVAs in an age of Covid-19 and new scheme-like processes in the Netherlands, to the rescue of SMEs in troubled times as well as judicial responses to the pandemic and relevant case studies illustrating the concerns of today as restructuring and insolvency adapt to the prevailing context.

Overall, the sessions were well-attended and the discussion lively. Structuring the conference in bite-sized pieces met with a very favourable response from the audience. A full review of all four sessions will be published soon on our website, and in the Winter edition of Eurofenix.

The Academic Forum annual event took place in the form of a Webinar on 30 September 2020. With nigh on 80 participants joining online, the event kicked off with an introduction and explanation of Zoom protocol by Professor Tomáš Richter (IEAF Chair; Charles University Prague). Condign appreciation was given to the sponsorship by Edwin Coe LLP, which has supported Academic Forum events in the past few years. Outlining the difficult choice of the Management Board from many worthy entrants, Professor Richter underlined the excellence of the 2 papers to be presented, both reflecting research-in-progress.

Thus, the technical programme focused on two major themes, the first by Professors Horst Eidenmüller and Kristin van Zwieten (Oxford) on creditor cooperation duties in out-of-court restructurings/workouts in pandemic times and beyond, while the second by Lydia Tsioli (King’s College London), looked at models and filtering mechanisms in international insolvency texts from the US Chapter 11 to the European Union Preventive Restructuring Directive relating to the notion of a “viability assessment”. Both the presentations showed that there is still some way to go before businesses in distress can benefit from the same advantages whether they are located in the EU or more globally.

Vigorous questioning followed the presentations with a high level of participation by the audience. In conclusion, Professor Richter thanked the speakers for their thought-provoking and timely presentations and also expressed the hope that the occasion of the conference scheduled for Dublin in 2021 would permit participants to gather in person for a fuller programme.

You can watch a recording of the event here or read a detailed report of the conference by Myriam Mailly, Technical Officer and Paul Omar, Technical Research Coordinator here.

On 3 and 10 December 2020 we will be holding our first Eastern European Countries' Committee online conference 'Tectonic Changes in Eastern European Insolvency', bringing together fresh insight and exceptional speakers.

Register your free place here: www.insol-europe.org/events

As the evolving impacts of COVID-19 ripple through our communities, we are all facing unforeseen challenges. With a renewed spotlight on insolvency, gaining fresh insight and real life examples will help us, as insolvency professionals, stay on top of our game, enhance business resiliency, ensure business continuity and most importantly, stay connected. Watch, listen, and ask questions from the convenience of your home or office, no travel needed. Add the dates to your calendar and join us!

If you have any queries, please contact Event Manager, Harriet Taylor.

It is well-known that the centre of main interests (“COMI”) is defined by Regulation (EU) 2015/848 (“EIR”) as “the place where the debtor conducts the administration of its interests on a regular basis and which is ascertainable by third parties” (Article 3 (1)). It mainly works both as a ground of jurisdiction (to open the main proceedings) and as a ground for the Regulation to be applied. 

The Italian Business Crisis and Insolvency Code, which was promulgated by legislative decree 12 January 2019 no. 14, revises the Italian insolvency law. One novelty is to have replaced the debtor’s “principal seat” with the COMI as a ground of jurisdiction (see Article 11), both to open Italian insolvency proceedings and to rule on the so-called “ancillary actions”. Besides, the Code embeds the same definition of the COMI as the EIR (see Article 2 (m)). Antonio Leandro, Professor, Department of Economics, Management and Business Law, University of Bari, Italy, explains the changes. Read the full story and other articles here.

If you would like the opportunity to have your Inside Story published in a future edition, please email Communications Manager, Paul Newson for details.

In partnership with INSOL Europe and other international organisations, the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development launched last month an Insolvency Assessment on formal business reorganisation procedures. Intended to cover the states where the EBRD invests as well as other economies in Europe and further afield, the assessment seeks to discover the state of play in these countries.

In an age of Covid-19, the pace of reforms has already begun to accelerate to cope with the expected fallout from the crisis. Of particular concern is the position of micro-, small- and medium-enterprises, constituting by far the largest proportion of businesses in any economy, whose ability to cope with the consequences of the pandemic is already being severely tested. Entrepreneurs in economies with limited resources and without a developed infrastructure to help support business will come under particular stress at this time.

In emerging and developing countries, reform projects already undertaken will need to be reviewed, while ongoing reforms will have to be redesigned at some speed. Even in developing countries with historically greater economic resilience, legal regimes have had to adjust to the evolution of the pandemic and its impact on particular economic sectors. But for those economies in transition especially, there is a real need to ascertain what will be the likely knowledge transfer and capacity building requirements they will need to undertake the necessary reviews.

To this end, INSOL Europe members in all jurisdictions, but especially those in recent EU accession and candidate countries, can help by filling out the online questionnaire, which is targeted at respondents with a legal background in restructuring and insolvency and which is available at the new EBRD assessment website. The questionnaire will only be available until 31 October and we urge our members to complete this as soon as possible. 

The assessment is also accompanied by a short survey on non-performing loans (NPLs) addressed to financial institutions and their advisors. The latter seeks to identify potential obstacles for NPL resolution in the banking sector, which will undoubtedly suffer a deterioration in loan portfolios as a result of the economic crisis.

INSOL Europe is proud to be associated with this project, which will add to the ability of the EBRD and other international organisations to target resources to provide assistance in strengthening national reorganisation frameworks and providing businesses and their creditors with the tools to achieve a successful restructuring. The results of the country surveys and a cross-jurisdictional analysis are likely to be available in 2021 Q1 and will be published on the EBRD assessment website.

The results will also help national authorities to think beyond emergency short-term legislation to the longer-term reforms necessary to help businesses return to viability and to protect jobs. In this work, INSOL Europe members, many of whom are already active as advisors to national policy-making and legislative bodies, can further contribute to the success of this initiative.

We are pleased to announce that we will be holding a joint conference with R3 and the Fraud Advisory Panel on 2 & 3 February 2021 (new dates for this online event). 

This online conference will focus on topics related to global financial crime, tackling rogue companies, UK compensation orders, asset tracing, cryptocurrency fraud, and digital forensics, with speakers from international police agencies, insolvency and fraud specialists, academics and many more.

Look our for updates and registration details coming soon on our website.