Insolvency in the news - kind banks and new books

An interesting insolvency related article has appeared in the Daily Mail (I found it on a train honest!). The piece notes that banks (example pictured) are being kind and not putting companies into liquidation. The banks are instead writing off the indebtedness. The author notes:

"The trend indicates that banks have been less eager to take court action and more willing to accept other solutions such as taking a stake in a business in exchange for writing off debts. But analysts warned it could also mean that banks were simply abandoning claims without forcing insolvency, allowing bust firms to keep trading and so hiding the real scale of business failures."

In other news, Professor Andrew Keay's new book has been published (Keay, A. The Corporate Objective. Edward Elgar, 2011). Here is the abstract:

"The Corporate Objective addresses a question that has been subject to much debate: what should be the objective of public corporations? It examines the two dominant theories that address this issue, the shareholder primacy and stakeholder theories, and finds that both have serious shortcomings.

The book goes on to develop a new theory, called the Entity Maximisation and Sustainability Model. Under this model, directors are to endeavour to increase the overall long-run market value of the corporation as an entity. At the same time as maximising wealth, directors have to ensure that the corporation survives and is able to stay afloat and pursue the development of the corporation’s position. Andrew Keay seeks to explain and justify the model and discusses how the model is enforced, how investors fit into the model, how directors are to act and how profits are to be allocated.

Analysing in depth the existing theories which seek to explain the corporate objective, this book will appeal to academics in corporate law and corporate governance as well as law, finance, business ethics, organisational behaviour, management, economics, accounting and sociology. Postgraduate students in corporate law and corporate governance, directors, and government regulators will also find much to interest them in this study."

Picture Credit: http://www.itraveluk.co.uk/photos/data/502/bank-of-england.jpg

Comments