Kenneth MacLean

Appropriation of financial collateral under English law security financial collateral arrangements

For nearly 20 years English law has permitted mortgagees and chargees of financial collateral to exercise a self-help remedy of appropriating charged collateral as a means of enforcing their security. The requirements include agreeing on the valuation of the collateral and conducting the valuation in a commercially reasonable manner. Since the implementing legislation is far wider than required by European law, the effectiveness of the remedy can be undermined by disputes as to what is commercially reasonable in particular factual contexts.