Bank Recovery and Resolution

While some may claim that the European debt crisis is over, many European legislative instruments directed at crisis management in the banking sector, including Banking Union legislation, are still pending enactment. These legislative instruments, once enacted, will bring about an unprecedented harmonization of European bank insolvency law. Also, a multitude of legal disputes following the nationalization of SNS Reaal, the fourth largest bank in the Netherlands, in February 2013, are still unresolved. On 23 May 2013, the Hazelhoff Centre for Financial Law at Leiden Law School and the Netherlands Association for Comparative and International Insolvency Law (NACIIL) organized a conference on the highly topical theme of recovery and resolution of credit institutions and investment firms. The key question to which answers were sought during this conference was: ‘Which rules should govern banks in difficulties?’ This question has also been the Hazelhoff Centre for Financial Law’s research theme for the past two years. The Hazelhoff Financial Law Series intends to deepen and further the debate on topical issues of financial law. It represents key results of the work of the Hazelhoff Centre for Financial Law at Leiden Law School. We understand financial law to encompass, inter alia, the legal aspects of financial supervision, the organization, functioning and regulation of financial markets, securities and finance transactions, market abuse, payments and payment systems, duties of care in the banking sector and bank insolvency. Another key characteristic of the work of the Hazelhoff Centre for Financial Law is our focus on the international dimension of financial law. Should you share our enthusiasm in any of these areas of the law, we are confident that you will find much of interest in the present volume.