Limits of Private Sector Solutions for Banks: Recent UK Rights Issues

Limits of Private Sector Solutions for Banks: Recent UK Rights Issues

Eilis Ferran

Series number :

Serial Number: 
115/2008

Date posted :

October 01 2008

Last revised :

SSRN Share

Keywords

  • Banks • 
  • financial re-structuring • 
  • rights issues • 
  • pre-emption rights • 
  • Disclosure

This article reviews regulatory concerns prompted by the difficulties that were encountered by four British banks in making rights issues and other pro rata equity offerings between April and August 2008 against a background of adverse market conditions. Its conclusion that rights issues are too cumbersome and too time-consuming swims with the mainstream of current thinking.

The article contributes to the debate by considering options for change it is realistic to pursue given the confines of the existing mandatory legal framework, much of which is now set at the European level.

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Authors

Professor
Real name: 
Eilis Ferran
Fellow, Research Member
University of Cambridge Law Faculty and Centre for Corporate and Commercial Law (3CL)