Inquiries conferences and reports
The need for a new process for the appointment of insolvency practitioners?
A Judge has expressed concern about the processes for the appointment of insolvency practitioners, suggesting adverse relationships with their lawyers, ...
Gender balance in the insolvency industry
With women comprising only around 10% of insolvency practitioners, the issue of gender balance continues to receive attention, among broader ...
Coercive control and insolvency
ASIC has asked registered liquidators to “stay alert” for signs of family and domestic violence when conducting insolvency administrations.[1] ASIC ...
Personal insolvency figures up and ‘reforms’ pending
Personal insolvencies increased in July 2024, to 1157 compared with the lows of 851 in June 2024, and 929 in ...
ASIC’s civil penalty regime – an academic review
In the midst of a focus on the enforcement activity of ASIC following a critical Senate Committee report,[1] we have ...
ASIC’s revised guidance on insolvency practitioner offence reporting – RG 16
ASIC has issued revised guidance on insolvency practitioner offence reporting obligations – RG 16 External administrators and controllers: Reporting of ...
Insolvency numbers in decline
Numbers of insolvencies of individuals and companies have fallen dramatically over the years, which we may find represents a fundamental ...
Splitting ASIC 2024 and the 2010 Senate Committee Report
In the discussions about separating ASIC’s tasks following the July 2024 Senate Economics References Committee report – Australian Securities and ...
Some proposed personal insolvency reforms in Australia
With the federal government yet to respond to the PJC Report on corporate insolvency of July 2023, which recommended a ...
Senate report on ASIC’s investigation and enforcement roles – July 2024
The Senate Economics References Committee has issued its Report – Australian Securities and Investments Commission – investigation and enforcement, of ...
“Personal insolvencies increased in May 2024…” – by 3
AFSA reports that “personal insolvencies increased in May 2024”. They did – by 3 more than in April 2024. Personal ...
The 2023 Parliamentary Joint Committee Report and insolvency law reform?
While the federal government is yet to give its response to the PJC Report on Corporate Insolvency of July 2023, ...
Personal insolvency numbers suffer a slight rise
There is not much to report from the latest personal insolvency figures, save for continued small increases over time. It ...
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 ...
Small business sole trader insolvencies
A recent newspaper report on the trend of insolvencies in small business was interesting for the reason that it acknowledged ...
AFCA financial compensation scheme of last resort
The federal government has announced [1] that a compensation scheme for victims of financial services misconduct will start from 2 ...
Report on the Franchising Code of Conduct – and insolvent franchisors
Further to my comments of September 2023 below as to a review of the franchising code of conduct, that review ...
Offence referrals by liquidators
Offence referrals to ASIC by liquidators continue to be contentious and perhaps distracted by the issue of claimed automated decision-making ...
Personal insolvency figures – December 2023
Numbers of personal insolvencies in Australia continue to fall with the December 2023 figure down to 805 compared with 853 ...
New corporate definitions of director, officer and asset
Following the ALRC’s work on Ch 7 of the Corporations Act, attention has already been given to legislative changes tidying ...
Corporations Act redrafting – ch 5?
Some years ago, I suggested to a Treasury officer that Ch 5 of the Corporations Act be redrafted and simplified. ...
Insolvency statistics 2023
Each of our insolvency regulators, ASIC for corporate, AFSA for personal, has issued its statistics for 2022-2023 right on the ...
Bankruptcy statistics – more of the same
With the annual personal insolvency statistics for 2022-2023 not yet released, AFSA has released figures for October 2023, showing 951 ...
