Principles & Guidelines

In the context of the joint World Bank (Bank) and International Monetary Fund (Fund) Initiative on Standards and Codes, insolvency and creditor rights (“ICR”) constitutes one of the twelve areas for which assessments are to be undertaken.   The recently revised text of the Principles is available at the links below.  The UNCITRAL Legislative Guide on Insolvency Law (“Legislative Guide”) focuses with more detail on the key elements of an effective insolvency law and presents a detailed series of Legislative Recommendations (“Recommendations”) that provide specific guidance on the content of an insolvency law, with an extensive discussion of various options and approaches.   The text of the Legislative Guide is available at:

http://www.uncitral.org/uncitral/en/uncitral_texts/insolvency/2004Guide.html

The Bank has coordinated the effort to articulate a set of assessment standards regarding ICR regimes for the purposes of the Bank/Fund Initiative on Standards and Codes.  The complementary perspectives of the Principles and the Legislative Guide serve as important reference points for countries to evaluate and strengthen their ICR systems in line with generally recognized standards of good practice.  Give the complementarity of the documents and the international consensus on best practices reflected in the Bank’s Principles and in UNCITRAL’s Recommendations, the staffs of the Bank and the Fund propose that these Principles and Recommendations, taken together, be recognized as the unified standard for ICR systems for the purpose of assessments under the Bank/Fund initiative on standards and codes.

For ease of reference, the Bank staff and experts, in collaboration with staff and experts of the Fund and UNCITRAL, have prepared a document, setting out a unified Insolvency and Creditor Rights Standard for ICR ROSC assessments (the “ICR Standard”), which integrates the Principles and the Recommendations.

This unified ICR Standard, the Revised Principles and the original Principles are available at the links below:

The  ICR ROSC Standard has been posted for public review and comment since December, 2005.  Although the formal comment period has now closed, if you have additional comments or queries regarding this document, please send them to gild@worldbank.org.