- Proposed changes will provide clarity for consumers about when they will own goods they have pre-paid for, particularly if a retailer becomes insolvent
- guidelines will set out ways of identifying the consumer as legal owner, including if goods have been labelled or altered for the buyer such as an engraved ring
- the current rules on transfer of ownership date back to 1893 and are not fit for modern-day shopping practices
Consumers who have pre-paid for goods would be better protected if a retailer goes insolvent, under Law Commission proposals announced today (27 July 2020).
Under the existing rules, if a company becomes insolvent, goods paid for in advance that are still in its possession may be considered as assets belonging to…
Read the full article at: https://www.miragenews.com/law-change-to-better-protect-consumers-in-event-of-insolvencies/
So why dont most economists share the worries of so many conservative politicians, headline writers and ordinary citizens? Five reasons.
The first is, these are extraordinary times. Im not sure Frydenberg is right in claiming the pandemic is “without doubt, the biggest shock this country has ever faced,” but its certainly one of them. And its certainly the most economically devastating pandemic since the Spanish flu of 1919.
Illustration: Dionne GainCredit:
As we can see even more clearly in countries that have been less than successful than we have in containing the virus, between the direct damage caused by the lockdown and the psychological damage of great fear and uncertainty about what the future holds, the economy has been f…
Read the full article at: https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/this-is-why-we-don-t-need-to-panic-about-record-budget-deficits-20200726-p55fj3.html
MORE than 80 per cent of respondents to a national survey of insolvency and restructuring professionals said they expect personal insolvency numbers to increase over the next year.
The study, which was carried out by the insolvency and restructuring trade body R3, paints a gloomy picture of the UKs economic prospects.
Nearly half (44.5 per cent) of the respondents to R3s member survey who work in personal insolvency said they expect personal insolvency numbers to be somewhat higher than 2019, while two in five (41.6 per cent) expect them to be sign…
Read the full article at: https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/business/consumer/80-cent-trade-professionals-expect-see-personal-insolvencies-rise-2924357
The Treasury is in talks with the UKs largest banks about an industry-wide plan to help tackle the tens of billions of pounds of bad debts expected under the governments light-touch coronavirus bounce back loans scheme.
More than 1m of the UKs smallest companies have borrowed 33bn in just two months under the bounce back loan scheme (BBLS), which offers state-guaranteed, six-year facilities of up to 50,000 with only minimal checks on the borrowers ability to repay.
The scheme was designed by the Treasury to allow banks to lend quickly to businesses struggling to survive lockdown, but bankers and officials predict many loans will never be repaid.
The Office for Budget Responsibility said this month that up to 40 per cent of these loans …
Read the full article at: https://www.ft.com/content/aa102028-710e-43e5-a199-0198f5f16ec2
After the immediate virus crisis, he says that if interest rates remain low, the government consistently balances the budget and economic growth is about a trend 2.75 per cent, gross debt-to-GDP could be reduced by 1 percentage points a year.
Frydenberg and Finance Minister Mathias Cormann have emphasised that the key to sustainable debt management is economic growth, not “austerity” spending cuts or tax increases.
That’s especially true at the moment when the AAA-rated government can borrow for 10 years at about a 1 per cent interest rate.
If the economic growth rate exceeds the borrowing rate, debt-to-GDP falls, even if the dollar value of debt doesn’t decline.
A burst of controlled inflation would also help reduce the debt burden,…
Read the full article at: https://www.afr.com/policy/economy/how-the-government-can-shrink-the-850b-debt-bill-20200724-p55f2o
Robert Barnes | Getty Images
A number of retailers were already teetering on the brink of collapsing prior to the coronavirus pandemic slamming the industry. The pressures have intensified immensely.
A few big names in retail, including Pier 1 Imports and Modell’s Sporting Goods, filed for bankruptcy much earlier in the year, weighed down by hefty debt loads and slumping sales even before the Covid-19 crisis was declared a national emergency in mid-March. Since then, that list of names has ballooned.
A report from S&P Global Market Intelligence released earlier this month identified the dozens of retailers that have filed for bankruptcy in 2020 which is now up to 40, following Ann Taylor parent Ascena Retail Group‘s filing on…
Read the full article at: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/25/list-these-are-the-retailers-that-have-filed-for-bankruptcy-in-2020.html
LITTTLETON, Colo.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Jul 24, 2020–
APC Automotive Technologies, LLC, together with certain of its subsidiaries, (APC or the Company), today announced that it has successfully implemented the debt restructuring set out in the Restructuring Support Agreement with its asset-based lenders, term loan lenders, and significant equity holders, following confirmation of the Companys chapter 11 plan of reorganization by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware on July 10, 2020, which became effective today.
As part of the restructuring, the Company has reduced the debt on its balance sheet by more than $290 million and secured a new $50 million senior secured term loan to finance its go-forward o…
Read the full article at: https://www.oaoa.com/news/business/apc-automotive-technologies-successfully-completes-restructuring/article_dcc79b09-48fa-54f9-8c44-2fb6a976eb39.html?mode=jqm
Witnessed through the lens of a technology company, Kiwi SMEs appear to be going through three distinct stages post the Covid-19 lockdown the ‘work from home’ stage, the ‘do more with less staff’ stage and the ‘re-invent service offerings’ stage but there are fears they may be trying to change too much, too quickly.
Hamish McLachlan, Director of technology company OneHQ, says if anything Covid-19 awakened New Zealand SMEs to the realisation that they had under-invested in technology for years and many companies are now playing catch up.
However, they are at risk of over-complicating their digital transformation.
“Covid-19 is an interesting transformation point because people suddenly needed to work remotely, says Hamish. Those…
Read the full article at: https://www.sunlive.co.nz/news/248464-three-stages-of-business-restructuring-postcovid.html