Personal insolvencies in 2024 – well under half the numbers in 2018
Numbers of personal insolvencies in 2024, while slowly increasing, remain at well under half their number in 2018. There were: 2,794 new personal insolvencies in the 3-month period to December 2024 up from 2,608 in the December 2023 quarter up from 2,321 in December 2022 quarter. In context, there were 6,858 in the December 2018 quarter. […]
The worst is still to come! apparently
The Australian newspaper most usefully for some keeps a focus on insolvency numbers, this time in an article [1] that extracts comments from an insolvency firm’s economic and business report, under the foreboding heading – “The worst is still to come”! [2] Corporate insolvencies The firm’s report [3] is a little more objective, saying that […]
Setting aside a personal insolvency agreement – on a tip-off
The Inspector-General in Bankruptcy has succeeded in having a debtor’s Part X personal insolvency agreement (PIA) of 1 March 2024 set aside pursuant to section 222(1) Bankruptcy Act on the basis that the terms of the agreement were “unreasonable or not calculated to benefit the creditors generally”. A sequestration/bankruptcy order was made by Justice Kylie […]
Australia’s cross-border insolvency proposal
UNCITRAL’s Working Group V – Insolvency – met in December 2024 and among other issues had before it a proposal of October 2024 from the Australian delegation for updating the Guide to Enactment and Interpretation of the UNCITRAL Model Law on Cross-Border Insolvency (GEI), and for holding a colloquium to assist that process. According to […]
A suspended liquidator’s reinstatement – a Kafkaesque journey?
ASIC Professional Registers Search Details A search of ASIC’s Professional Registers shows that Peter Macks is now registered by ASIC as a liquidator. ============================= A liquidator whose registration was suspended for 3 years by the court in 2021 has succeeded in 2025 in overturning a decision by ASIC that as he had not maintained his […]
Leroy and the [still] missing bankruptcy funds
The claim against former bankruptcy trustee Paul Leroy drifts on, with a mere ‘case management conference’ in the Federal Court that was set for 21 February 2025 was then adjourned for two months, to 17 April, and again to 9 May 2025. Subpoenas are returnable on 26 March. There is a freezing order over Leroy’s […]
Insolvency reform, phoenix misconduct – where to begin…
Insolvency law reform inquiries into phoenix company misconduct are happening or are proposed. Where are we to begin? Soon after the Productivity Commission (PC) proposed its inquiry into illegal phoenix activity [1], being one inquiry among others under the National Competition Policy: modelling proposed reforms, and soon after the 5 year anniversary of the changes […]
Australia on a slope? [continued]
My various comments about Australia’s standing in the world corruption stakes, below, go back to 2022 – Australia on a slide. Australia dropped 12 points in Transparency International’s corruption index during the years 2012 to 2021, 85 down to 73. Since 2022, it has now risen, only to 77, being [only] 10th in the world. […]
Dramatic fall in insolvency numbers
The number of personal insolvencies fell by over 28% in the period July to December 2024, with big falls in construction businesses (down 17.2%) and retail (down 8%) over the previous month. If that trend continues, the number of personal insolvencies in 2024-2025 may be well under 10,000, compared with 11,644 in 2023-2024. The drop […]
The latest from AFSA – stats, regulation, advisers, debtors’ petitions
AFSA has issued its latest Personal Insolvency Regulator newsletter for January 2025 containing reports on Statistics – are numbers plateauing? Business insolvencies … Regulation – AFSA is the 4th highest referrer of summary offences to the DPP and the 5th highest for indictable offences. AFSA’s vulnerability strategy Untrustworthy advice – the scale of which is […]
Small corporate business restructuring – Part I
This is a brief review, in two parts, of the small corporate business restructuring process under Part 5.3B of the Corporations Act. Some articles and on-line comment give a more detailed and critical coverage of the process than is available from firms’ marketing. A report from ASIC also gives some useful statistics. More is needed […]
Annual [2023-2024] personal insolvency statistics
Dividend payments to creditors in bankruptcies in 2023-24 averaged only 2.42c in the dollar. Registered bankruptcy trustees took in more than $253 million in receipts with proceeds of asset sales at 54% being the main source; and they paid out more than $254 million, of which their trustee remuneration was $74 million and dividends to […]
“Deliberate and ruthless” competition policy in action
The higher than usual number of corporate insolvencies in 2024 may indicate that healthy but tough competition, driving efficiency and productivity, is at work. In what is a free enterprise economy, competition between firms is a significant driver of economic efficiency and productivity. Competition policy focuses on the winners as the group to support and […]
Ariff and insolvency practitioner regulation
It is interesting to compare the rather muted reaction to millions of dollars missing from three insolvent estates in Sydney with the extreme reaction, over 15 years ago, to the criminal misconduct of Mr Stuart Ariff, a sole practice liquidator from Newcastle. While we don’t need a repetition of the media hysteria that we had […]
Thousands and thousands of business collapses?
A rather dramatic headline, political only, warning that an extra 10,000 businesses will go under by June 2025 might best be seen only as a Pharmacy Guild type hype for political purposes, not worth responding to.[1] But perhaps it bears some simple comment, at least. Here are four points, there may be others. Context – […]
How long does it take to disqualify a director?
Fifteen years after a director’s first misconduct, and seven years after his companies went into liquidation, ASIC has reported by media release its achievement of disqualifying the director from managing corporations. The misconduct included a failure to lodge a 2024-2025 income tax return; the failure to register for an ABN or tax file number, to […]
Personal insolvency numbers remain low – AFSA report
AFSA has released a useful report on personal insolvencies in 2023-2024, with some predictions as to the future. State of Personal Insolvency Report released for 2024 | Australian Financial Security Authority The report also refers to AFSA’s regulatory processes and achievements, including action to challenge a Part X agreement. Low numbers Of Australia’s adult population […]
Australia’s suggested update of UNCITRAL’s Cross-Border Insolvency Guide
The United Nations Commission on International Trade Law Working Group V (Insolvency Law) is meeting this week 16-20 December 2024 in Vienna. Its two main issues for consideration are the legal issues arising from asset tracing and recovery in insolvency proceedings; and the applicable law in insolvency proceedings. Also, UNCITRAL reports that on 8 October […]
Former liquidator sentenced to 4 years jail; ASIC yet to explain
ASIC reports that former registered liquidator Peter Andrew Amos was sentenced on 13 December 2024 in the District Court of NSW to four years imprisonment after pleading guilty to charges of dishonestly using his position with the intention of gaining an advantage for his business and himself contrary to s 184(2)(a) of the Corporations Act. 24-281MR […]
The costs of insolvency practitioner regulation
ASIC has released its analysis of the costs of regulation of liquidators; AFSA has issued comparable analyses of the costs of regulation of trustees. ASIC’s cost of regulating liquidators was $7.481m in 2023-2024. There is no evident way of making regulatory cost efficiency assessments because each of ASIC and AFSA is separately regulated by different […]
Former liquidator sentenced to 4 years jail, 2 years non-parole
Former liquidator, Mr Peter Amos, has been sentenced to 4 years imprisonment, 2 years non-parole, for misappropriation of around $2.5m in breach of the Corporations Act, extending from 2016 to December 2022. Further details soon. Further details will also be provided on any report from ASIC, and ARITA, CAANZ and the other industry bodies on […]
Public regulators aren’t to blame for private enterprise misconduct, ok?
In a rather sad comment on standards of conduct in many parts of the private enterprise sector, ASIC has listed the range of industries and misconduct and illegality which it has the task, as matters of priority, to regulate and prevent. These include the exploitation of superannuation savings, promotion of unscrupulous property investment schemes; failures […]
Financial abuse report – corporate, tax, bankruptcy and family law conduct
Among the 61 recommendations of the Report of the Parliamentary Joint Committee (PJC) on Corporations and Financial Services – Financial abuse: an insidious form of domestic violence of December 2024 are those concerning corporations and tax liabilities imposed on the ‘victims’ of financial abuse, and bankruptcy and family law issues. Financial Services Regulatory Framework in […]
Productivity inquiry into phoenix activity
The Productivity Commission (PC) has issued its National Competition Policy: modelling proposed reforms. Among proposed inquiries into electric vehicle charging and marine freight is an inquiry into phoenix activity. This is in the context of the government undertaking a two-year competition review. A key focus of the review is to ‘look at competition laws, policies […]