Twenty years after its adoption in 2001 by the United Nations General Assembly, the United Nations Convention on the Assignment of Receivables in International Trade (Convention)1 has yet to enter into force.2 Despite this, however, the Convention has influenced the development of national assignment of receivables law, as well as uniform law, and our better understanding and knowledge of assignment of receivables law. And recent developments suggest that it may still turn out to be a success. This article discusses the reasons for the failure of the Convention and its impact so far and examines its future prospects.3
13 June 2024Smart derivatives contracts have the potential to deliver significant efficiency benefits to derivatives market participants. However, automating legal documentation is a specialised task and lawyers have a crucial role to play in ensuring automation is legally and operationally effective. Developing smart derivatives contracts will require lawyers to enhance the levels of standardisation within industry standard contracts and contribute towards the development of legal agreement data models that will serve as the foundation for smart derivatives contracts.
13 June 2024The importance of a modern secured transactions framework for movable assets that effectively channels credit to the SME sector has been widely recognised. However, a modern secured transactions framework may not spur market-based collateralised lending if a public credit guarantee scheme disincentivises lenders and borrowers from engaging in it. Improperly designed schemes cause many market distortions, including slower growth, profitability and sustaining zombie companies. As Japan embarks on secured transactions reform, it needs to consider the role of its credit guarantee scheme in facilitating collateralised lending. The lessons this article outlines should be instrumental in other economies.
13 June 2024This article summarises some of the key points arising out of the newly published Digital Dispute Resolution Rules (Digital DR Rules). The advantages of adopting the Digital DR Rules are explored as well as considering how the rules might be incorporated into new and existing agreements.
13 June 2024The publication of the new 2021 ISDA Interest Rate Derivatives Definitions (2021 Definitions) marks the first comprehensive update of ISDA’s definitions booklet for interest rate products since the publication of the 2006 ISDA Definitions (2006 Definitions) in January 2007. It is a significant undertaking, making a very wide variety of changes to take account of, among other things, benchmark reform, the new regulatory environment for bank resolution, the introduction of collateral rules and central clearing. In addition, there will also be a new electronic ISDA user interface called MyLibrary which will be updated as changes are made to the definitions. This article analyses the changes to the cash settlement provisions.
13 June 2024In this article the authors consider the consequences of the creation of “super priority” debts under the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020 (CIGA) moratorium, including the effect on secured creditors, priority as between holders of Super Priority debt and the potential impact on floating charge holders.
13 June 2024COVID-19 lockdowns have disrupted commodity transactions and consequential enhanced oversight of borrowers’ businesses has uncovered fraudulent activities. Of utmost importance to any lender in a commodity financing is that the commodity exists and has not been financed by another party. Against this backdrop, in this article, the authors describe a typical security package adopted by commodity financiers under an English law commodity financing.
13 June 2024Over the past year, the COVID-19 crisis has caused liquidity issues for many US businesses, which has forced some borrowers to resort to increasingly creative restructuring options. These have generally fallen within two categories – “dropdown” transactions and “uptiering” exchange transactions, both of which have seen borrowers take steps under their credit agreements to prioritise one set of lenders over another. This article tracks the key cases in the US market and offers a flavour of what may be arriving soon on European shores.
13 June 2024This article compares the reliance requirement for the common law claim of misrepresentation with the statutory action of s 90A of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (FSMA). The authors focus on recent authority regarding reliance upon implied statements at common law and the uncertainties that remain under s 90A FSMA.
13 June 2024In the UK Listing Review it is suggested that the LSE should allow companies with dual class share (DCS) structures to list on the Premium segment. In this article, we discuss this proposal. First, we discuss the arguments that are made against DCS-listings, and we give an overview of the Swedish DCS-regulation. From there, we discuss the conditions for DCS-listing recommended in the Review. We conclude that the listing conditions suggested might not only hinder DCS-structures from being useful for some companies but would risk disabling mechanisms that could counteract several of the problems that DCS-structures may cause.
13 June 2024