Companies and credit

The financial crisis of 2007, which resulted from insufficient consumer financial protection in the US, conflicts of interest in the credit rating agency industry, and defective transparency requirements in derivatives markets,[14] triggered a massive rise in corporate insolvencies. Contemporary debate, particularly in the banking sector, has shifted to prevention of insolvencies, by scrutinising excessive pay, conflicts of interest among financial services institutions, capital adequacy, and the causes of excessive risk taking. The Banking Act 2009 created a special insolvency regime for banks, called the special resolution regime, envisaging that banks will be taken over by the government in extreme circumstances.
Corporate insolvency
See also: UK bankruptcy law, Bankruptcy in the United States, and List of corporate collapses and scandals
Corporate liquidations spiked after the financial crisis of 2007-2008, after a pre-crisis norm of around 13,000 per year.

Corporate insolvencies happen because companies become excessively indebted. Under UK law, a company is a separate legal person from the people who have invested money and labour into it, and it mediates a series of interest groups.[15] Invariably the shareholders, directors and employees' liability is limited to the amount of their investment, so against commercial creditors they can lose no more than the money they paid for shares, or their jobs. Insolvencies become intrinsically possible whenever a relationship of credit and debt is created, as frequently happens through contracts or other obligations. In the section of an economy where competitive markets operate, wherever excesses are possible, insolvencies are likely to happen. The meaning of insolvency is simply an inability to repay debts, although the law isolates two main further meanings. First, for a court to order a company be wound up (and its assets sold off) or for an administrator to be appointed (to try to turn the business around), or for avoiding various transactions, the cash flow test is usually applied: a company must be unable to pay its debts as they fall due. Second, for the purpose of suing directors to compensate creditors, or for directors to be disqualified, a company must be shown to have fewer overall assets than liabilities on its balance sheet. If debts cannot be paid back to everybody in full, creditors necessarily stand in competition with one another for a share of the remaining assets. For this reason, a statutory system of priorities fixes the order among different kinds of creditor for payment.
Companies and credit
Main articles: UK company law, English contract law, English property law, and UK commercial law
The credit ratings industry is dominated by Fitch, Moody's and S&P, with London headquarters in Canary Wharf. Companies pay the rating agencies to rate them, because this provides access to cheaper loans.