Insolvency – What is new?
Newsletter 66
The long-awaited changes to the regulations governing bankruptcy have been introduced under the Law on Amendments to the Bankruptcy Law, published in the “Official Gazette of RS” No. 83/2014.
The new solutions that will have the greatest practical impact on the bankruptcy and reorganisation proceedings cover the following areas:
1. Secured creditors and pledge creditors
The amendments introduce a new category of creditor in the bankruptcy proceedings – the pledge creditor.
A pledge creditor is defined as creditor “holding a security interest over the assets or rights of the bankruptcy debtor registered in public registers or books, however not having any monetary claims against the bankruptcy debtor secured under such security interest”.
In spite of the obvious similarity between the secured creditor and pledge creditor , the difference is fundamental – the pledge creditor does not have a monetary claim against the bankruptcy debtor, but only the right of pledge over a certain asset or right that is part of the bankruptcy estate.
A pledge creditor would exist in case of agreements creating a pledge to the benefit of a third party, i.e. in cases where the bankruptcy debtor (as pledgor) has pledged any of its assets or rights to serve as security for a claim which the pledge creditor (pledgee) has against a third party (as principal debtor), rather than against the bankruptcy debtor.
Neither secured nor pledge creditors are deemed to be bankruptcy creditors.
