Cross-border paperless trade toolkit

This toolkit aims at raising awareness of the technical and legal tools to be called upon to adopt cross-border paperless trade systems and national single windows (NSWs). Key actions to develop paperless trade systems include:&bull; enabling a conducive legal framework;&bull; enabling a conducive technical framework;&bull; promoting efficient governance and engaging stakeholders;&bull; providing technical assistance.</p

Strategic Default and Equity Risk Across Countries

We show that the prospect of a debt renegotiation favorable to shareholders reduces the firm's equity risk. Equity beta and return volatility are lower in countries where the bankruptcy code favors debt renegotiations and for firms with more shareholder bargaining power relative to debt holders. These relations weaken as the country's insolvency procedure favors liquidations over renegotiations. In the limit, when debt contracts cannot be renegotiated, equity risk is independent of shareholders' incentives to default strategically. We argue that these findings support the hypothesis that the threat of strategic default can reduce the firm's equity risk

Eighth Joint Multinational Judicial Colloquium

The eighth joint UNCITRAL/INSOL/World Bank multinational judicial colloquium was held in Vancouver, Canada on 20-21 June 2009. Over 80 judges and government officials attended from some 40 states, representing a broad range of practical experience and perspectives, particularly with respect to cross-border insolvency, from diverse legal systems. The colloquium provided a widely-welcomed opportunity for judges to have contact with each other and to further their understanding of the various national approaches to cross-border insolvency cases. A number of judges attending had not attended previous colloquia