Insolvency assessments

Insolvency Assessments

Since its inception in 1997, the EBRD’s Legal Transition Programme has made the assessment of laws and legal systems in its core focus areas a key component of its contribution to the reform of transition economies. These assessments provide, among other things, detailed information on the EBRD’s countries of operations as to how their legal systems compare to international standards and best practices. The assessments also help to inform the transition projects of the EBRD.  Progress in legal reform in the transition countries can be measured by assessing both the current laws (‘Extensiveness’) and how these laws work in practice (‘Effectiveness’). 

Extensiveness

The Insolvency Sector Assessment uses a comprehensive guideline, developed as a composite of the leading international standards in insolvency, to measure a given country’s legislative compliance with these standards. The Insolvency Sector Assessment was first conducted in 2003. The assessment was subsequently updated to reflect all major amendments brought into force by June 30th 2006 for the following countries: Croatia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Slovak Republic and Tajikistan,and to provide new assessments for Mongolia and Montenegro.

Effectiveness

The Legal Indicator Survey goes beyond the ‘law on the books’ and assesses how the legislation, together with the local institutional framework (including rules of procedure, courts and judges and insolvency administrators), in each country works to create a functional (or dysfunctional) insolvency legal regime. The Legal Indicator Survey on insolvency was last conducted in 2004.

Comparing Extensiveness and Effectiveness

The data collected by the EBRD in the Assessment and the Survey has allowed for a unique comparison of both the extensiveness and the effectiveness of insolvency legal regimes throughout the EBRD’s countries of operations.

Insolvency Office Holders in South East Europe

This is a report of the results of a comparative survey  (0.4Mb) that has reviewed the manner in which the laws of eight south eastern European countries make provision for the qualifications, licensing, appointment, removal/retirement/replacement, standards of work and conduct, discipline and remuneration of office holders in insolvency cases. The term ‘office holder’ means a person who is appointed to administer an insolvency case and includes a trustee, liquidator, administrator, reorganiser and so forth. The eight countries are Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, FYR Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, and Slovenia (the ‘survey countries’).

The survey (made possible with funding provided by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO)) was conducted in 2005-6 using laws in force as at 31 December 2006. It has been conducted as part of a project that is providing technical assistance to the government of Serbia in relation to insolvency office holders generally. The terms of reference of that project provide for a ‘review of the insolvency legislation of the survey countries, with particular reference to the licensing and duties of office holders’.

The relevant law in each of the survey countries provides for the appointment of an office holder upon the opening or commencement of every insolvency case. Office holders may, thus, be expected to perform an important function in the administration of insolvency cases. It is, therefore, of considerable importance that the respective laws of those countries make adequate provision for the general eligibility, qualifications, standards of conduct and practice and regulation of such office holders. The principal purpose of the survey is to determine whether and the extent to which the respective laws of the survey countries make such provision.

If you have any comments or questions regarding this report, please contact the EBRD’s insolvency specialist, Mrs Melissa Burgess, on +44 0207 338 7579 or at burgessm@ebrd.com.