European Bail-In Rules Extend to the US Credit Market

The new bail-in rules that generally took effect in January 2016 are the European Union’s response to the 2008 global financial crisis and the “too big to fail” regime. The EU Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive (2014/59/EU) requires that EU member states implement a similar legal framework whereby failing financial institutions will not look to public stakeholders for a “bail-out.” European regulatory authorities can force these failing institutions to cancel or severely dilute shareholder equity or to cancel, write-down or convert unsecured liabilities to equity. Such regulatory action is referred to as a “bail-in.”

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