INTRODUCTION Contributed by: Marcel Willems and Rowan Hamer, Fieldfisher
The Insolvency Guide 2025 aims to provide legal and non-legal professionals with a concise overview of the main restructuring and insolvency law topics in various jurisdictions. The experienced authors on restructuring and insolvency law describe the rules and practices applicable in their jurisdictions, as well as the latest (upcoming) developments. To provide an outline of the main elements, this Guide discusses the different liquidation, restructuring and insolvency procedures in each jurisdiction, as well as the main statutory officers and other actors within the systems. Nowadays, many businesses are no longer operating in just one jurisdiction, so that liquidation, restructur - ing and insolvency procedures also must deal with cross-border businesses and aspects. Therefore, this Guide also considers how different jurisdictions deal with international aspects, such as recognition of for - eign judgments, or co-operation between the various actors in the event of cross-border procedures. Fur - thermore, the Guide covers the obligations of direc - tors and officers, and under which circumstances they can be held personally liable. Finally, the possibilities to set aside transactions that preceded a restructuring or insolvency procedure will be discussed. The (national) rules and practices of insolvency law have been evolving for years, decades or centuries; at the same time there are developments that have come up only recently or have come from other legal sys - tems or continents. Such developments always take place in a legal, political and socio-economic context. Some of the global developments and practices that came to the surface in 2025 will be discussed below. Globalisation Today’s economy faces constant change and uncer - tainties. Globalisation, technology and geopolitical shifts increase the interdependence of national econo - mies. Globalisation offers companies new opportuni - ties to prosper through cross-border trade, investment and collaboration. On the other hand, these develop - ments can also lead to companies failing to survive, due to a lack of adaptability to change or a lack of financial resilience. Because of the interdependence of economies, financial problems or bankruptcies in one economy can have severe financial consequenc - es for the other. For example, the ongoing insolvency
proceedings regarding the Signa Group, which was part of a network of about a thousand companies. Around 40,000 people worldwide were employed in companies owned by the Signa Group, and those jobs were suddenly at risk. The ongoing process of opening economic, political, technological and social borders is one of the most discussed phenomena of recent decades. Businesses today no longer operate only in the national market, but increasingly and more easily enter the international market with their goods or services. With customers, suppliers, employees, shareholders and other lenders spread across different continents, this presents com - panies with global growth opportunities. As the com - plexity of businesses increases, the complexity of the insolvency procedures that must be gone through if such a business is at risk of insolvency also increases. A consequence of globalisation is that companies are specialising and exports are increasing. As a result, there is the increasing influence of the logistics sec - tor. One consequence is that certain products are no longer produced domestically but must be imported from other countries. This therefore provides many opportunities for companies to operate efficiently and internationally but can also painfully expose how inter - dependent companies and economies have become. As demonstrated in March 2021, when a container ship blocked the Suez Canal and daily trade worth EUR9 billion came to a halt. On top of that, thousands of freight containers were shipped late, causing delays in manufacturing processes as factories received raw materials and assembling parts late, and for a long time the orderly spread of containers over the globe was disrupted. In addition, more recently, the worries in Europe that China may block or delay the supply of rare earth metals (a group of 17 elements that are essential for modern technologies and clean energy), thereby jeopardising innovative development in vari - ous branches, especially automotive. Another consequence of technological globalisation is the increased competition from businesses that are not even required to be physically present in the same country. Technical developments mean that compa - nies can offer their goods or services cheaper, faster and more efficiently. Companies that do not invest in
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