Clifford Chance

Reform of Polish Insolvency Law

2 June 2016

On 1 January 2016 the new restructuring law of 15 May 2015 (the "Restructuring Law") came into force. It implements a significant reform of Polish insolvency law, comprising:

•        the introduction of new restructuring procedures, allowing the restructuring of a debtor's undertaking and preventing its bankruptcy, and

•        major amendments to the Bankruptcy and Recovery Law of 28 February 2003 (the "Bankruptcy Law") in order to streamline "classic" bankruptcy proceedings, reduce unnecessary formalities and expedite liquidation and to implement substantive changes (such as redefining bankruptcy tests, removing priority of tax and social insurance claims, implementing procedures facilitating pre-packs, extending hardening periods and improving protection against fraudulent conveyances, etc.).

The Restructuring Law provides important, large-scale changes to the Polish insolvency regime, hence, naturally, only selected aspects of the reform may be signalled in this briefing.

The Restructuring Law was published in the Journal of Laws dated 14 July 2015 (item 978).

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