Cross-border and international

What is the future of insolvency practice?

In my reply to an interesting comment from a practitioner about the fundamental difficulties of lack of funding for insolvency ...

Insolvency law terms – what do they mean?

While insolvency law uses many and varied terms to describe its various processes for dealing with an insolvent business, no ...

Insolvency law’s elephants in the room

Professor Jason Harris and I will be presenting a session at INSOL Academics Colloquium in San Diego USA on 22 ...

NZ insolvency practitioner sanctioned

A sanction of a New Zealand liquidator for the poor handling of his matters provides an illustration of New Zealand’s ...

“Shock horror – insolvent people don’t have many assets”

While we wait for the useful annual statistics from AFSA as to dividend returns in bankruptcies in 2022-2023,* an insolvency ...

Australia on a slide? [continued]

While I need to update my February 2022 comments below, and note for example that the government has now given ...

Insolvent trading in context

Insolvent trading is one of the many items for review recommended by the Parliamentary Joint Committee report on Corporate Insolvency.  ...

Regulation of firms offering insolvency services

Further to my earlier post on insolvency practitioner (IP) regulation in the UK, and contrary to expectations,[1] the UK government ...

Voluntary administrators removed as NZ interim liquidators of debtor on independence grounds

Following the appointment by the New Zealand High Court of Australian voluntary administrators of Probis as New Zealand interim liquidators ...

Some insolvency law reform ideas from Scotland and New Zealand

“ … the state is, effectively, paying insolvency practitioners to end the life of small companies … a sub-optimal solution ...

The cross-border regulation of insolvency practitioners – insights from INSOL Tokyo

I was invited to present at the INSOL International Academic Colloquium on 12 September 2023 in Tokyo on the panel ...

Australian voluntary administrators appointed as New Zealand interim liquidators

In Insolvency licensing bodies confirmed for New Zealand’s new regulatory regime – Murrays Legal, of August 2020, I explained the ...

Cross-border regulation of insolvency practitioners – INSOL Tokyo – where are the government regulators?

This commentary has now been updated.  See The cross-border regulation of insolvency practitioners – Murrays Legal ============================================== I was pleased ...

UK personal insolvency reforms – summary of responses and next steps

In my comments of July 2023 following, I reviewed the 2022 call for evidence in the UK on reform of ...

Principles of Regulation of Insolvency Practitioners – an international standard

This comment was issued in October 2018; it is re-issued in May 2023, but not updated, for interest. The rather ...

World Bank’s B-Ready Report on country business systems, including on the efficiency of corporate insolvency systems

This explains the World Bank’s new Business Ready initiative, which will report on the business systems of up to 180 ...

Personal insolvency reform in Australia

The government is convening a “national roundtable with key stakeholders” on 2 March 2023 in relation to personal insolvency law ...

DOCAs – should ‘not much of a return to creditors but better than the liquidation alternative’ be enough?

Issued June 2021, re-issued January 2023 The WA Supreme Court has dismissed a challenge to deeds of company arrangement (DOCAs) ...

How low can we go – funding the insolvencies of assetless estates

Obvious as it is to say, insolvency involves limited or no money, and how to fund its existence as a ...

Insolvent assetless MSMEs – all but forgotten?

My commentary of October 2020 is re-issued, for readers’ interest.  Does it matter that a company is insolvent such that ...

International insolvency regulators’ conference – some current comparative issues

The International Association of Insolvency Regulators’ Annual Conference was held in England from 26-29 September 2022.  Australia’s reported contribution to ...

International insolvency case law from New Zealand and the UK

The universal nature of much of insolvency law is such that many of its principles apply across jurisdictions, with a ...

Class actions and litigation funding – New Zealand law reform report

While Australia is in the midst of some potential change in the law about litigation funding,[1] the New Zealand Law ...

Who should pay for the costs of the administration of an insolvency?

A debtor in Australia pays no fee to have themselves made voluntarily bankrupt. If that does not seem odd, then ...