Should You Reconsider Your Bankruptcy Remoteness Strategy?

Two recent bankruptcy court decisions have highlighted certain weaknesses regarding bankruptcy remoteness ' a concept that typically arises in the context of structured finance and asset securitization transactions. These transactions use special-purpose vehicles and seek to accomplish two primary objectives: first, to isolate a borrower's assets so as to remove them from risk if the special purpose vehicle becomes insolvent. The second objective is to make the special purpose vehicle bankruptcy remote, meaning that provisions in transactional documents and entity-control documents such as operating agreements are tailored to make it difficult for the borrower to file bankruptcy voluntarily or to collude in an involuntary bankruptcy filing.