Unlike an English private limited company incorporated under the Companies Act 2006, an English limited partnership (LP) is not a legal entity. In practice, this can create confusion and risk when LPs create and register security. Stephan Smoktunowicz examines some of the key considerations when taking security from LPs including the grey areas which surround registration and how to approach them more safely.
20 March 2024A key weapon in the lender’s arsenal is the default provisions contained in a loan agreement and the actions that the lender may take upon the occurrence of an event of default. In Lombard North Central plc v European Skyjets Limited [2022] EWHC 728 (QB), Mr Justice Foxton considered whether certain events of default had occurred and whether Lombard had validly terminated the loan agreement so as to enable it to enforce its security, namely Skyjets’ aircraft. The judge’s legal analysis provides a useful recap of the legal principles. This article focusses on the doctrine of waiver by election and some practical considerations for lenders in a default scenario.
20 March 2024In this article Nora Beausang considers recent case law relating to the interpretation of “consumer” for the purposes of special jurisdictional rules (Recast Brussels Regulation and its predecessors), considers whether this interpretation has wider application to other regulatory protections applying to consumers and argues for the limitation of this more expansive interpretation.
20 March 2024There are several regulatory and practical reasons why some creditors may not be able or willing to take up an allocation of equity post-restructuring. In this article the authors explore some of those reasons and provide some potential structuring solutions.
20 March 2024There is no scope for trusts under current Spanish law; they neither exist nor are recognised in the jurisdiction. Incorporating them into Spanish law would require a substantial transformation of Spanish property law. At the same time, it is not even truly clear whether trusts are indeed a bulletproof solution in the context of safeguarding securities under custody. In any case, Spanish law provides for a set of measures designed to safeguard securities held under custody, particularly traded securities held under custody by an entity participating in Iberclear, the Spanish central securities depository.
20 March 2024In this article, Tom Marshall explains the meaning of interoperability in the context of blockchains, existing infrastructure and why and how traditional finance is getting involved.
20 March 2024In this article, Amy Held draws attention to two ways in which fundamental principles of English property law are being distorted in the present discourse on crytpoassets. First, English law is not really prescriptive as to what “things” fall within the scope of property law or “can be property”, but, rather, is concerned with rights in relation to things. The statement, therefore, that cryptoassets “are property” lacks any real meaning. Second, English law has no real concept of “ownership” as distinct from “possession”. Given that English law tends to focus on the latter, it remains unclear what it means for anyone to assert that they are the “owner” of a cryptoasset, how “ownership” is proved and established, and how the right of “ownership” is vindicated in a dispute.
20 March 2024Institutions which provide market liquidity, such as banks, are in possession of very valuable confidential client data – their trading intentions. Trading intentions can generate revenue for the bank with little or no risk. This requires the bank to trade for its own account using the client’s confidential information before it trades for the client. This behaviour is generally given two labels: “front-running”, which is considered to be illegitimate, and “trading-ahead”, which is thought to be legitimate. However, their effects are often identical which should imply that their legitimacy should also be the same.
20 March 2024In this article, Dr Michael Huertas considers the impact on non-EU headquartered banking entities of the findings of the ECB-SSM’s Desk Mapping Review (Review). The Review assesses the governance and risk management capabilities of the EU operations of such non-EU headquartered entities.
20 March 2024This article covers three issues: (i) which kinds of digital assets (arguably) fall within the Financial Collateral Arrangements (No. 2) Regulations 2003 (FCARs); (ii) what is likely to constitute “possession or control” of a digital asset for the purpose of the FCARs (where a security financial collateral arrangement is involved); and (iii) whether the FCAR regime is appropriate in the digital asset context (and whether there needs to be a separate regime that applies specifically to digital assets).
20 March 2024