Law reform
Looking more at deregistered companies
“Enforcement agencies have long been aware of the role that the abandonment [deregistration] of companies plays in illegal phoenix activity. ...
Thoughts on the PJC’s Corporate Insolvency Report
The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services (‘PJC’) handed down its Report into Corporate Insolvency in Australia on ...
Offence reporting by insolvency practitioners
What is said to be the limited response by ASIC to corporate misconduct reports by liquidators is the subject of ...
UK insolvency practitioners to come under direct government regulation
At the same time that the chair of the Australian PJC inquiry into corporate insolvency, Senator Deborah O’Neill, said that ...
Gender, and diversity, in insolvency practice, continued
The July 2023 PJC report into corporate insolvency[1] makes recommendations on the “problem” of the limited female representation among liquidators, ...
UK’s review of its 2020 insolvency law reforms, with Australia compared
The quality of a recent UK review of its 2020 insolvency law reforms is compared with the approach taken in ...
Increase in Australian insolvency numbers
Personal insolvency numbers show a continued increase in numbers but still well below past figures; on the other hand, corporate ...
Should the firms of insolvency practitioners be regulated, along with the practitioner?
While Australia is currently focusing on the standards of conduct of accounting firms, and their partners – see Ethics and ...
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 ...
Anti-money laundering laws to be improved, including registers of beneficial owners
The 2023 budget has allocated funds for action on Anti‐Money Laundering and Counter‐Terrorism Financing (AML) laws, including a beneficial ownership ...
Insolvency law reform in Australia – three underlying concerns
With over 70 submissions from a wide variety of stakeholders and numerous answers to questions on notice, the parliamentary joint ...
Personal insolvency numbers – an increase or a decrease?
While AFSA reports that personal insolvencies increased in number in February 2023, to 796, from 772 in January, this was ...
ASIC’s insolvency law enforcement role
The Senate Economics References Committee is loading up submissions received on its reference into ASIC’s capacity and capability to “undertake ...
Attorney-General’s Roundtable on Personal Insolvency
A summary of priority issues discussed at the Attorney-General’s personal insolvency law reform roundtable held on 2 March 2023 has ...
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 ...
Business bankruptcies – 6,000 to 9,000 each year
Given that ‘small business’ itself is defined in various ways, none of which is based on the legal structure of ...
Failing fast … five hundred and something days to wrap up a business?
At the PJC inquiry into corporate insolvency, in the context of the 2015 Productivity Commission (PC) Report on Business Entries ...
Parliamentary insolvency inquiry – the business model of insolvency firms
Some fundamental issues about the operation of insolvency law and practice are being raised in the joint parliamentary committee inquiry ...
Abolition of the AAT, and its insolvency law matters
The Administrative Appeals Tribunal is to be abolished we are told and replaced by a new administrative law review body ...
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 ...
Rethinking Insolvency Practitioner Remuneration – Insolvency Law Bulletin
Had the decision in Re HRL Limited (in liq) [2022] VSC 693, allowing a “success fee” on insolvency practitioner (IP) ...
The latest Insolvency Law Bulletin – remuneration, trading trusts, financial product collapses, gender, and more
In the latest issue of the Insolvency Law Bulletin, we have an article on a simpler solution to insolvent trading ...
What is it about bankruptcy?
It was November 2015 that the then government announced a proposed reduction in the period of restrictions of bankruptcy to ...
TIP – The Insolvency Portal
My 2022 versions of the Bankruptcy Act and the Corporations Act retain much of the process and procedure found in ...
