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Governing law, ungovernable questions: the challenge of public international law in the World Bank’s development policy financing agreements
This article explores the challenges surrounding governing law in the World Bank’s development policy financing agreements (ie loan, credit, guarantee and the International Development Association’s grant and financing agreements). Multilateral development banks, such as the World Bank, play a critical role in addressing global development challenges in low- and middle-income countries. The World Bank (and indeed certain other multilateral development banks owing to their nature as supranational entities) adopts public international law as the governing law for its development policy financing agreements. English law or New York law are usually used in standard loan agreements due to their predictability, clarity and well-established precedents. The World Bank’s use of public international law – while aligned with its supranational status – raises questions around enforceability, jurisdiction and dispute resolution. The article describes the role of public international law in governing the World Bank’s development policy financing agreements and its practical application.
29 September 2025Use of the quoted Eurobond exemption in the loan markets: why, when and how?
The use of the note subscription agreements has become increasingly common in the EMEA loan markets. There are various tax and regulatory reasons why an entity may choose to obtain debt finance by issuing notes, rather than by borrowing a loan. A common reason that UK companies choose to obtain debt finance in this way is to benefit from the quoted Eurobond exemption from UK withholding tax.
This article explains when this exemption is most likely to be relevant, the criteria that must be satisfied to benefit from it, and the key documentary and practical implications of using it.
Fiduciary duties and regulatory rules: are the courts and the regulator on a collision course?
Deborah Sabalot Deane asks whether the motor finance vehicle cases have identified a gap between the law and the regulatory rules creating legal uncertainty and doubtful outcomes for both consumers and the industry.
29 September 2025The Supreme Court tweaks Etridge
English property law periodically produces epoch-making decisions of the highest court. In years to come, Waller-Edwards v One Savings Bank plc [2025] UKSC 22 may well become such a decision. It enjoys the respectable jurisprudential lineage of three famous House of Lords’ decisions: (i) Barclays Bank v O’Brien [1994] 1 AC 180; (ii) CIBC Mortgages v Pitt [1994] 1 AC 200; and (iii) Royal Bank of Scotland v Etridge No 2 [2002] 2 AC 773, but it also applies established principles in a novel way. In this article, Marc Beaumont considers why the Supreme Court reached the decision that it did including a look at the social policy considerations that influenced it.
28 July 2025Removing blots from the copybook: third-party rights and HNW Lending Ltd v Lawrence
The authors consider HNW Lending Limited v Lawrence [2025] EWHC 908 (Ch), in which Andrew Lenon KC expressly departed from the ruling of HHJ Dight CBE in the analogous case of HNW Lending Limited v Mark (unreported, Central London County Court, 7 August 2024). Both cases concern whether, and on what basis, a security agent for a lender may sue under the loan agreement by reference to the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999.
28 July 2025Show me the money: value leakage in European high-yield bonds
In this article, James McDonald, Kenneth Ryan and Michael Chern provide an overview of how high-yield bond covenants regulate the movement of a company’s cash and assets beyond the reach of creditors, or “value leakage”, and recent trends in these covenants, with a focus on the European high-yield market.
28 July 2025Mind the gap: UK stablecoin rules create uncertainty
The UK government’s recent decision not to proceed at this time with extending the payment services regulatory framework to fiat-referencing stablecoins marks a significant policy reversal. The previous government’s phased approach offered time and flexibility to address difficult boundary questions and ensure coherent treatment aligned with economic function. By collapsing regulation of cryptoassets into a single legislative phase for both fiat-referencing stablecoins and other cryptoassets, the current Draft Order risks a lack of functional differentiation between payment instruments and investment assets, as well as territorial ambiguity. This article explores the UK’s shift in approach, highlighting points of interpretive uncertainty and divergence from developments in the US.
28 July 2025The case for paying the costs of insolvency from fixed as well as floating charge assets
This article proposes that insolvency costs should be paid from both fixed and floating charge assets from a percentage cap of their joint value. It argues that doing so would increase the pool of assets from which to satisfy insolvency costs, whilst retaining the utility of charges as a form of security.
28 July 2025DeepSeek and the rise of financial AI: legal and regulatory perspectives from China
DeepSeek and artificial intelligence (AI) have been widely adopted in China’s financial markets, though their use also introduces significant technological risks. This article explores the financial application scenarios of DeepSeek, examines the gaps between China’s financial regulatory framework and emerging technological risks, and offers recommendations for improving financial regulation in the era of low-cost AI.
28 July 2025A risky business: giving and receiving “free” advice
This article considers when an investment bank might (or might not) be entitled to payment for work performed in the hope of winning a mandate, and the risk to a client of accepting such services whilst remaining silent about whether it intends to pay.
28 July 2025
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