European Insolvency and Enforcement Country Guide

In the current economic climate, it is important that lenders understand how they can enforce security and debt claims, to help in assessing options in the event of default by their customers, and when structuring new lending. It is also increasingly common that a bank lending to customers in their own country will lend ancillary facilities, or take guarantees and security, from foreign subsidiaries and counterparties.

K&L Gates and local counsel have put together a comprehensive country guide to give an overview of the steps that need to be taken to enforce both secured and unsecured claims in a range of key European jurisdictions.

On a country by country basis, this guide gives an overview of how to:

• enforce and realise security in that country;
• enforce unsecured debt claims; and 
• enforce a debt ‘cross-border’, i.e. by obtaining a judgment in one country, and enforcing it in another.

The guide has been prepared by lawyers in each of these countries, who act regularly in enforcing secured and unsecured claims for banks, both on a domestic and a cross-border basis.

K&L Gates LLP’s geographical coverage means that we and, through our network of local counsel relationships, can offer our clients banking and finance experience in structuring and documenting finance transactions as well as enforcement and restructurings in the countries covered in this guide, other key jurisdictions in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the Far East.

The sections on the position in Belgium, England, France, Germany, Italy and Poland have been prepared by K&L Gates LLP; all other sections have been prepared by a firm in our network of relationships in each relevant jurisdiction.