MSME

The business structures of SMEs

A recent article in the Australian Business Law Review – Not in isolation: The Rationale for a Combination of Business ...

ASIC’s report on small business corporate restructurings under Part 5.3B

I am dubious about many of the outcomes touted for insolvency “restructurings”, or at least without the negative outcomes reported ...

Government’s law reform of schemes of arrangement a “complete waste of resources when the core problem brewing is in the SME market”

Some may agree or not with the “blunt” submission of an Australian liquidator and trustee on the government’s review of ...

Small business insolvency advice via the Ombudsman

The federal government’s current focus on personal insolvency law reform coincides with Small Business Month in NSW and the Small ...

Do our insolvency laws suit small business failures?

In shopping for a suit recently, I noticed that the Big Store displayed its suits according to brand, which apparently ...

UK insolvency practitioners – “evidence of intimidation, deception, dishonesty and even misappropriation of assets”?

A very critical report on the insolvency profession in the UK – Resolving-Insolvency-APPG-on-Fair-Business-Banking-and-Humphries-Kerstetter.pdf (appgbanking.org.uk)  has come from the All Party ...

Australian small business insolvency law – a review

Several stars aligning at the end of 2020-2021 prompt this review of where Australia is at in the area of ...

Is bankruptcy a life and death issue?

I was startled to be reminded of a regular question in the well-known US General Social Survey whether contemplating or ...

Australia’s limited insolvency reforms for small business

With our international trading partners recently meeting to examine ways to handle micro to small enterprise (MSE) insolvency impacted by ...

Australian lawyers attending UNCITRAL’s Working Group V on MSME insolvency – May 2021

UNCITRAL’s Working Group V – Insolvency is reconvening this week 4-7 May 2021, following its last meeting in December 2020. ...

Neither a borrower nor a lender be – at least to a friend or a relative …

A guarantee given by a mother to a friend of her son for the son’s business debts ended up in ...

Australian personal insolvency reform for COVID-19 impacted debtors

The Australian government’s proposed retention of the restrictions of bankruptcy on COVID-19 impacted business proprietors and consumers is questionable, but ...

Australia’s new liquidator registration processes, and its ‘new liquidators’

On 30 December 2020, ASIC issued guidance on the new liquidator registration processes that apply in Australia two days hence ...

Corporations Amendment (Corporate Insolvency Reforms) Act 2020 No 130 of 2020

This is now law, with a date of assent of 15 December 2020, and with a commencement date for most ...

Does small business count?

This Ombudsman’s follow up report – Small Business Counts – examines small to medium business enterprises (SMEs) from an economics ...

Australia’s corporate SME insolvency law may soon become law – and then….

The Corporations Amendment (Corporate Insolvency Reforms) Bill 2020 progressed through a third reading in the Australian parliament on 8 December ...

Corporate insolvency reforms 2020 – referred to a committee?

Report No 11 of 2020 of the Senate’s selection of bills committee of 3 December 2020 has considered the Corporations ...

Australia’s small business restructuring practitioners

Australia is proposing a sub-group of liquidator accountants to assist in administering its new corporate SME insolvency laws, set to ...

Do the Australian small to medium business insolvency reforms add up?

The numbers upon which the government is relying for the proposed SME reforms[1] don’t seem to add up. Apart from ...

ATO’s right to garnishee – a “privileged position … likely to result in failed corporate rescue attempts”?

A recent article Getting the priorities right: ATO garnishee notices in times of corporate distress by Sylvia Villios and David ...

Australia’s proposed MSME insolvency reforms – an international perspective

Australia’s draft legislation to implement its announced MSME corporate insolvency reforms may have drawn more on international than local thinking, ...

Fightback! SMEs get a new restructuring tool

The federal Treasurer has announced a new restructuring regime for struggling small to medium enterprises (SMEs)[1] which adopts a ‘debtor-in-possession’ ...

Virtual Panel Series – UNCITRAL Texts and COVID-19 Response and Recovery – MSMEs and access to credit and secured lending

An interest group in Australia, the UNCITRAL Coordination Committee for Australia (UNCCA), has a role in monitoring and attending UNCITRAL[1] ...

Australian Small Business Ombudsman’s ‘COVID-19 Recovery Plan’ – ‘turnaround and insolvency’

The Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman has issued a COVID-19 Recovery Plan, of May 2020. Within that the ...