Restructuring, Insolvency and Secured-Creditor Enforcement Proceedings

Update as at January 2022 - countries covered by this dictionary are, in a number of cases, updating their insolvency laws to address the current Corona virus pandemic and we will be providing country specific updates (where relevant) in the coming hours, days and weeks). Please refer to our European guidance for details of government and central bank measures available to businesses in 14 countries: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain and UK, as well as information regarding changes to their insolvency laws.

These changes seem unlikely to alter the definitional terms encompassed by this dictionary but are important to providing some insight as to how procedures might be affected at this current time.

We have used our exceptional international reach to put together this dictionary of insolvency terms. It provides a summary, for each EU member state, of all corporate, personal and, where relevant, partnership insolvency proceedings. It includes a brief description of each proceeding and explains key features, including who controls the procedure and whether it is likely to be accompanied by a moratorium to prevent enforcement.

Although there has been some movement towards a unified approach to financial distress, with jurisdictions across Europe moving away from legislation that contemplates only formal liquidation towards instead embracing a culture of rescue and recovery, the detail of the restructuring and insolvency procedures and the terminology used to describe them remains diverse. We hope that this dictionary will assist all those dealing with financially distressed entities in the EU to understand the available procedures in each member state.

In particular, it will be a valuable resource for prospective purchasers of distressed debt, insolvency office holders, investors, lenders and credit controllers. Our aim is to update the content periodically to take account of developing legislation in our market and, in due course, to make it a global dictionary.

Please do get in touch if you would like to benefit from our knowledge, experience and resources on a national and international basis.