Creditor Priority in European Bank Insolvency Law: Financial Stability and the Hierarchy of Claims

This book provides the first comprehensive treatment of creditor priority in European bank insolvency law.

Following reform in the wake of the global financial crisis, EU law requires that Member States have in place bank-specific insolvency frameworks. Creditor priority-the order in which different creditors bear losses should a bank fail-differs substantially between bank-specific and general insolvency law. The bank-specific creditor priority framework aims to ensure that banks can enter insolvency proceedings without disrupting financial stability.

The book provides a systematic and thorough account of the Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive and other EU legislation that governs creditor priority in bank resolution and liquidation proceedings, and their interaction with national law. The framework is analysed from several perspectives, including comparison with creditor priority in English, German and Norwegian general insolvency law. Moreover, the book places the evolution of the framework and its justifications within the broader post-crisis shifts in bank regulation, and critically examines the assumptions that underlie these developments. Finally, the book discusses how this area of law could evolve in the future.

Sjur Swensen Ellingsæter is Associate Professor at the Department of Law and Governance, BI Norwegian Business School, Norway.