Droit des affaires - Insolvabilité des États et dettes souveraines -1 - 148

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Les maux

In order to sidestep the legal protection afforded to the Euroclear system and more in general to all clearing and settlements systems by the Finality Directive, Elliott framed its claim for relief very narrowly when it attempted to attach payment ﬂows initiated by Peru. Elliott attempted to block funds that were to transit through the Euroclear system and were meant to be paid out to new bondholders. What it requested from the court was not an attachment. Elliott requested an injunction barring Euroclear from making payments. Although the injunction sought by Elliott had in fact the same consequences as an attachment, the Court found that this injunction did not violate the protection granted by the Royal Decree nr. 62 and the ﬁnality law. 175 In the meantime, however, as has been reported elsewhere, 176 the ’loophole’ found by Elliott Associates has been closed. The Belgian legislator has intervened and made it impossible to attach, block or paralyze assets and funds held in the Euroclear system. 177 A new provision adopted shortly after the Elliott saga has broadened even more the protection enjoyed by cash accounts held in the Euroclear system. The new text prevents a judgment creditor from obtaining a court order that would preclude Euroclear from channeling payments from a sovereign debtor to its bondholders. 178
Court refused to examine whether the attachment was abusive or not. In this case, see also the ruling by an English court: Indosuez International Finance BV v National Reserve Bank [2002] EWHC 774 (Comm). 175. Likewise, in the Nicaragua case, the Commercial Court (ruling of the Commercial Court of Brussels, 11 September 2003, opinion unpublished, case R.K. 204/03, at p. 18) found that the injunction made to Euroclear did not violate the legal protection. Speciﬁcally, the Court found that “en l’espèce, les mesures sollicitées par LNC ne constituent en aucune manière de la part de LNC (I) ni une saisie-arrêt sur un compte courant d’instruments ﬁnanciers ouvert dans les livres d’Euroclear (article 9 de l’Arrêté royal [nr? 62], (ii) ni une saisie de sommes payées à Euroclear Bank en tant qu’organisme de liquidation (article 10 bis de l’Arrêt Royal [nr. 62] par la République du Nicaragua, ou pour son compte, en tant qu’émetteurs d’instruments ﬁnanciers, (iii) ni une mesure de saisie ou de blocage d’un compte de règlement du système Euroclear (article 9 de la loi [Finality Law]”. The Court went further: “... les mesures ordonnées par l’ordonnance n’ont en aucune manière entraîné le blocage des comptes de Deutsche Bank, ni d’aucun autre participant au système Euroclear. Le maintien de ces mesures … n’empêchera dès lors pas non plus ni la continuation du bon fonctionnement de ces comptes, ni le bon fonctionnement global du système ou la liquidation des opérations traitées par celui-ci, à l’exception des transactions visées par l’ordonnance”. 176. See the comments of G. AFFAKI and J. STOUFFLET, « Chronique de droit bancaire international », Banque & Droit, 2005, 81 ff. 177. The change was part of a modiﬁcation which primarily aimed to implement in Belgium the twin directives 2001/17 and 2001/24 on insolvency of insurance undertakings and banks. Article 27 of the Bill was, however, clearly not inspired by these directives, but by the Elliott case. See the Explanatory Statement by the Government, which was ﬁled together with the bill: Doc. Parl., Chambre, Session 51, 1157/01, 25 May 2004, at pp. 63-64. 178. This result was achieved through an amendment of Article 9 of the Settlement Finality Law. The change was effected by Article 15 of the Act of 19 November 2004 (published in the Ofﬁcial Gazette of 28 December 2004). The modiﬁed text reads as follows (the additional language is in italics): “Every settlement account concerning cash with an operator of the system (i.e. Euroclear Bank) or with a settlement organization of a system as well as every transfer order of monies through a credit institution operating under Belgian or foreign law that must be transferred to such a settlement

Droit des affaires - Insolvabilité des États et dettes souveraines -1

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