Meetings/conferences attended by the IPC
6 meetings of the IPC itself
Two meetings with the Insolvency Service
A meeting with the JIC Chairman
Three meetings of the IVA Standing Committee
Meeting at Northampton University
Two meetings with the OFT
A meeting with the BBA
Two meetings of the Insolvency Rules User Group
International insolvency conference
The IPA annual conference
The IPA pre-pack forum
The R3 Smaller Practitioner Group Forum
The MALG annual conference
The ICAS annual IP conference
The conference included a section on complaints handling. It was noted that the main cause/subject matter of complaints was consistently poor communication. ICAS would shortly be issuing a circular to all its members to encourage them to improve their performance.
More generally, ICAS believed its complaints system was a good and fair one. ICAS was not persuaded by the OFT case for a new complaints system, but, if a consensus developed in favour of using the Financial Ombudsman Service as an independent reviewer of all complaints, ICAS would go along with this.
The new regime for Protected Trust Deeds is still under discussion in a working group by the Accountant in Bankruptcy (AiB). It is recommending use of a Common Financial Statement, greater discretion for the Trustee in admitting creditor claims and a new fee structure including a first distribution to the creditors in month 18 of the arrangement. A Best Practice Guide is being developed. Returns to creditors from PTDs are pretty low and costs quite high.
The AiB believed that the DAS was still underutilised. New regulations would be introduced in 2011 to widen the group of potential money advisers. The AiB was taking on much of the administration of DAS schemes including distributions to creditors.
Although the Home Owner and Debtor Protection (Act) Scotland 2010 has been enacted there are still extensive consultations going on how to protect tenants and owners from being evicted. There was a good deal of disagreement on whether the approach proposed in the Act would help or make matters worse.
A meeting with the IPR Services Limited board
A meeting with ACCA