Dept restructuring in the "new" Italian Insolvency Law

Abstract

The present contribution addresses the issue of debt restructuring in Italian Insolvency Law following its Reforms1 introduced by Legislative Decree n. 5/2006 and by Legislative Decree n. 169/20072. Besides general bankruptcy (fallimento), the “new” legal framework provides for the “Reorganisation plan” (according to Art. 67, § 3, lett. d.), Italian Insolvency Act), the out of court settlements with creditors, voluntary arrangements (concordato preventivo), the composition plan with creditors (concordato fallimentare) and the administrative liquidation (liquidazione coatta amministrativa). Not surprisingly, the Reforms had a strong impact on the main players involved in insolvency proceedings3, i.e. the insolvency court, the insolvency judge (giudice delegato), the off icial receiver (curatore fallimentare)4 and the members of the creditors’ committee (comitato dei creditori). In order to better understand the extent and the implications of the recent Reforms in Italian Insolvency Law, a brief outline of the Equality and Priority of creditors principle and the relevant provisions ruling for “claw back” actions seems appropriate.