External Affairs update: May 2023

08 June 2023

With three bank holidays, May was a short month for the UK this year. But that didn’t slow down work for the External Affairs team, with the appointment of a new R3 President, a round table on Special Situations, and ongoing policy and media work to ensure the voice of the profession is heard at every opportunity.

Change at the top

Spring is traditionally a time for change and this year is no exception, with the appointment of Nicky Fisher of Herron Fisher as our new R3 President.

The External Affairs team has worked closely with Nicky to develop her Presidential manifesto, which outlines her priorities for her term of office, and to publicise her taking office in the specialist insolvency, restructuring and finance press.

Among Nicky’s key priorities for her year in office are promoting the value and work of the profession, ensuring members and the profession have a voice in the debate around this year’s regulatory issues, and continuing to drive R3’s work on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion with the Insolvency Service.

News of Nicky’s appointment was well received by trade media, and led to stories in outlets that included TRI Strategy, Lexis Nexis and Credit Connect, as well as an interview in Insolvency Insider about her career and her plans for her presidency.

Experts round the table

At the start of the month, the Public Affairs team welcomed members of the newly-formed R3 Special Situations Faculty to a breakfast roundtable on Special Situations M&A, hosted at the Addleshaw Goddard London office and chaired by Felix Connolly and Matthew Flower.

Throughout the discussion, it was highlighted that activity has picked up over the past few months, but while the volume is there, the quality of available assets for investors is lower than it was historically. But attendees agreed that this activity is only set to increase over the next year.

It was also raised that while mainstream banks are looking at how they can support businesses first to avoid direct or hostile enforcement action, challenger banks are being more aggressive on enforcement due to their smaller portfolios.

Finally, attendees discussed the role of HMRC, its impact on restructuring plans and its preferential creditor status. It was agreed that R3 continue to push engagement with HMRC to help voice concerns from members and drive more consistent policy around M&As.

Thank you to everyone who attended the roundtable. These insights have helped us better understand the current issues at play in the market, and will help us to better represent members in discussions with policy makers, regulators and the media.

Progress on economic crime legislation

In May the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill, which has been making its way through the House of Lords since January, finished its Committee Stage.

Throughout the month, the Public Affairs team had many Peers about our concerns around the Bill, including Companies House’s lack of due diligence around the automatic strike-off procedure, the low level of data visible to insolvency practitioners on Companies House and the lack of engagement between the profession and public sector bodies to help tackle fraud.

However, the focus of the discussions was around other areas of the proposed legislation so we will continue to raise our concerns with the Bill ahead of its Report Stage in the House of Lords on 20^th June.

R3 in the media

As well as our engagement with the media on the appointment of Nicky Fisher as R3 President, we’ve continued to provide commentary and insight into insolvency and business distress trends, and insolvency policies and processes.

Towards the end of the month, R3 Deputy Vice President Tom Russell was interviewed for a story by iNews, discussing Crown Preference and its impact on insolvency processes as well as wrongful trading.

A rise in corporate insolvency levels in April shown in data published by the Insolvency Service was covered publications that include Reuters, City A.M, the Daily Mail and a variety of trade and regional publications.

And stories on local business trends including a rise in insolvency-related activity in Scotland and a fall in late invoices in the South West featured in stories in Insider, Credit Connect, the Business Desk and Business Live, to name a few.