Georgios Psaroudakis

Security interests in insolvency: UNCITRAL instruments and Greek law compared

This article compares the treatment of security interests in insolvency under the UNCITRAL Legislative Guide on Insolvency Law (Insolvency Guide or IG) and the UNCITRAL Legislative Guide on Secured Transactions (Secured Transactions Guide or STG) with the treatment of security interests in insolvency under Greek insolvency law. It briefly discusses the key objectives of these regimes, the insolvency estate and the impact of stays on individual actions, the effectiveness and priority of security interests, the use and sale of encumbered assets, the treatment of contracts, and the treatment of security interests in reorganisation and post-commencement finance. As an introductory remark, Greek insolvency law was recently reformed, although it retained much of the previous law. Its basis nowadays is Law 4738/2020 (Insolvency Code or IC), which regulates three (insolvency and pre-insolvency) procedures: These are: (i) the liquidation of the debtor’s estate and distribution of the proceeds to creditors; (ii) restructuring, which may bind all creditors by means of judicial confirmation of the restructuring agreement; and (iii) out-of-court workout, which applies to public law and financial creditors only, and is not court-supervised, given the apparent lack of need for protection of these powerful creditors.¹