**court restructuring scheme analogous to the London Approach** _._ Due to the recent financial crisis, both Dubai and Kuwait have taken steps to enable out-of-court restructuring to prevent the bankruptcy filings of large companies important to their economies. The efforts have led to some initially successful restructurings. For countries where there are significant numbers of corporate entities with multiple institutional creditors, developing such schemes, with rules tailored to a country‟s needs, may be prudent. Financial crises can provide a laboratory to test and refine the rules, while allowing distressed companies to survive the financial storm.

**In countries where debtors do not have multiple creditors, developing reliable alternative dispute resolution services may be an effective tool to promote resolution of creditor-debtor disputes and avoid bankruptcy.** The French model, which makes a mediator available to assist debtors in negotiations with creditors, may serve as a partial roadmap to MENA countries, particularly those with a Francophone tradition. Alternative dispute resolution may be particularly effective in two-party disputes, those between a debtor and a single creditor. Arbitration is already used in some MENA countries. Since many MENA countries report that debtors and creditors prefer informal resolution and negotiations to court, the market for alternative dispute resolution appears to exist. Developing effective, reliable access to mediation and perhaps arbitration may help some debtors and creditors resolve their disputes before resorting to an insolvency filing.

> i MENA Report, Chapter 5, page 15.

ii MENA Report, Chapter 5, page 15, and observations of reformers in MENA countries. iii DoingBusiness 2010, Closing a Business, http://www.doingbusiness.org/ExploreTopics/ClosingBusiness/. iv Additional in-country research was not conducted to supplement available materials. Therefore there are gaps in the information. Information on insolvency systems in Algeria, Libya, Bahrain, Syria, Tunisia, Iran and Iraq, particularly seems to be lacking. Identifying such gaps in available information, however, may be useful to policy makers. It allows them to design appropriate diagnostic programs to determine their needs in developing and implementing a modern insolvency system.

v Jordan interviews with stakeholders. The laws include the Companies Law, the Civil Code and the Commercial Code.

> vi _MENA Report_ , Chapter 8 Jordan

> vii _MENA Report,_ Chapter 12 Palestine, Chapter 13 Qatar, Chapter 14 Saudi Arabia, Chapter 15 UAE viii Interviews with reformers working in the region.

> ix _Financial Sector Reforms and Prospects for Financial Integration in Maghreb Countries,_ IMF Working Paper, WP/07/125, May 2007.

> x _World Bank Principles,_ C3

> xi _MENA Report,_ Chapter 6 DIFC.

> xii _MENA Report,_ Chapter 9 Kuwait, Chapter 10 Lebanon.

> xiii _Egypt’s Insolvency Framework – A Roadmap to Reform_ , Report of the Project Team, 25 July 2009, joint IFC, World Bank, MIGA assessment team, page 9.

xiv Commercial Code of Morocco Article 560 xv Jordan stakeholder interviews. There is an insolvency procedure for merchants provided-for in the Commercial Code though a judge commented that the provisions are deficient and of little use in a modern economy, and it is not clear how much it is used, if at all. Personal insolvency is covered by the Civil Code.

> xvi _MENA Report_ , Chapter 7 Egypt, Chapter 9 Kuwait, Chapter 14 Saudi Arabia, Chapter 15 UAE

> xvii _MENA Report_ , Chapter 7 Egypt, Chapter 9 Kuwait, Chapter 10 Lebanon, Chapter 11 Oman, Chapter 14 Saudi Arabia. For Morocco information, Commercial Code of Morocco Article 563.1.

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