Research Seminars

Coming Soon...

SGRI Workshop: "Restructuring vs Bankruptcy"

25 March 2024, Monday 
1.00pm to 2.30pm

Yong Pung How School of Law 
Level 5, Meeting room 5.04 

Speaker: Professor Edward R. Morrison 

In a recent article, Professor Morrison and his co-authors develop a model of a firm in financial distress. Distress can be mitigated by filing for bankruptcy, which is costly, or preempted by restructuring, which is impeded by a collective action problem. The authors find that bankruptcy and restructuring are complements, not substitutes: Reducing bankruptcy costs facilitates restructuring, rather than crowding it out. And so does making bankruptcy more debtor-friendly, under a condition that seems likely to hold now in the United States. The model gives new perspectives on current relief policies (e.g., subsidized loans to firms in bankruptcy) and on long-standing legal debates (e.g., the efficiency of the absolute priority rule).

[Conference] Strengthening Insolvency Systems in Asia and the Pacific

15-16 December 2022
Asian Development Bank Headquarters, Manila, The Philippines

Speaker: Professor Edward R. Morrison 

Background and objective: A well-functioning insolvency system is essential for the competitiveness and growth of an economy. Yet, many countries in Asia and the Pacific still have inefficient insolvency frameworks. The lack of an attractive legal, market and institutional environment to deal with financial distress may hamper entrepreneurship, access to finance and economic growth. Additionally, a weak insolvency framework may increase the level of non-performing loans in the banking sector. If so, it can end up jeopardizing the stability of the financial system and even lead to sovereign debt issues. To address those problems while facilitating economic recovery in the post-pandemic world, this event will seek to analyze how countries in Asia and the Pacific can strengthen their insolvency and restructuring frameworks. To this end, the event will discuss modern trends and developments in corporate restructuring and insolvency and how an insolvency system should be designed or improved taking into account the legal, market and institutional features existing in a particular jurisdiction.

Organizers: Asian Development Bank, Singapore Management University, Singapore Global Restructuring Initiative, University of Chicago Law School’s Center on Law and Finance, University of Cambridge’s Centre for Corporate and Commercial Law, INSOL International.

Format: Hybrid event

Audience: The event will be open to regulators, judges, government officials and central banks from all over the world. An invitation-only policy will apply to the rest of participants joining us in person. For virtual attendance, the event will be open to any interested participant.

[Webinar] Insolvency for Micro and Small Businesses - Global and Regional Perspectives

3 March 2021, Wednesday
3.00pm to 4.15pm

Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) represent the vast majority of businesses in most countries. Despite their economic relevance, most jurisdictions do not provide an attractive insolvency framework for MSMEs. With COVID-19 hitting MSMEs the hardest, many countries are accelerating the process of implementing an efficient insolvency framework for these businesses.

Organised by the Asian Business Law Institute and the Singapore Global Restructuring Initiative, this webinar will provide an overview of the insolvency reforms for MSMEs happening in various countries globally, including Australia, Myanmar and Singapore. It will also analyse the primary policy recommendations suggested by the World Bank and UNCITRAL, as well as the role of lawyers, mediators, financial advisors and insolvency practitioners in the resolution of a situation of financial distress of MSMEs.

[Webinar] The Asian Business Law Institute/III Asian Principles of Global Restructuring Project

2 February 2021, Tuesday
1.00pm (GMT) / 9.00pm (Singapore time)

Speakers

• Justice Kannan Ramesh (High Court, Singapore)
• Dr Aurelio Gurrea-Martínez (Singapore Management University)
• Mr Sushil Nair (Drew & Napier, Singapore)

Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) represent the vast majority of businesses in most countries. Despite their economic relevance, most jurisdictions do not provide an attractive insolvency framework for MSMEs. With COVID-19 hitting MSMEs the hardest, many countries are accelerating the process of implementing an efficient insolvency framework for these businesses.

Organised by the Asian Business Law Institute and the Singapore Global Restructuring Initiative, this webinar will provide an overview of the insolvency reforms for MSMEs happening in various countries globally, including Australia, Myanmar and Singapore. It will also analyse the primary policy recommendations suggested by the World Bank and UNCITRAL, as well as the role of lawyers, mediators, financial advisors and insolvency practitioners in the resolution of a situation of financial distress of MSMEs.

The speech delivered by Justice Kannan Ramesh is available here.