The Polish National Debt Register will not enter into force until December 2021?

Amendments introduced by the Polish Senate regarding the entry into force of the National Register of Debtors in December 2021 were supported by the Polish Sejm. Over 30 Senate amendments to the amendment to the Act on the National Register of Debtors (KRZ) were adopted by the Sejm. Most of them were editorial and precise. The amendments postponed the entry into force of the provisions on the Polish National Debt Register – from the beginning of July 2021 to the beginning of December 2021. The amendment will now go to the Polish president. The new regulations also introduce a partial computerization of consumer bankruptcy proceedings.

Purpose of the amendment

The most important group of five amendments proposed by the Polish Senate was intended to postpone the entry into force of the amendment, as well as the original law on the Polish National Debt Register, to 1 December 2021. All this to extend the adaptation period, which will allow for better preparation of the ICT system supporting court proceedings. The changes also apply to other issues. The final version of the draft introduces permanent accelerated proceedings to the restructuring law. Currently, pursuant to Art. 15 sec. 1 of Shield 4.0, the announcement on the initiation of a simplified restructuring procedure is possible only until June 31, 2021. The extended adjustment is to allow the objectives of the amendment to the Bankruptcy Law to be achieved through the ICT solutions adopted in the Polish National Debt Register. Adjustment of these two acts will improve the procedure of consumer bankruptcy, among others by the principle of submitting letters and documents via the ICT system handling court proceedings, keeping the files of the proceedings by the restructuring advisor only in the ICT system, access to files via the ICT system and extending the scope of disclosed information in the Polish National Debt Register.

Changes included in the amendment

The amendment increases the scope of information disclosed in the National Register of Debtors in order to increase the transparency and openness of consumer bankruptcy proceedings. In addition, the procedures under the so-called pre-pack (prepared liquidation standing for declaring bankruptcy while maintaining the debtor’s enterprise, that consists in selling part or all of the debtor’s enterprise or some of its components, under the conditions established before the declaration of bankruptcy) will be greatly facilitated. This is due to the extension of the forms of the deposit, currently it is possible only with the use of money, but it will be broadened to cover the sureties of the bank or the cooperative savings and credit union; bank and insurance guarantees. Thanks to this, the institution of prepared liquidation will become more popular and beneficial to potential buyers, which will affect the efficiency and effectiveness of the liquidation procedure. The postponement of the entry into force of the amendment is also influenced by the Act of October 7, 2020 amending certain acts to counteract the socio-economic effects of COVID-19.

The National Register of Debtors will be a source of information on entities that are insolvent, threatened with insolvency or for which unsuccessful enforcement has been discontinued. This will help to increase the transparency of enforcement proceedings and, by implementing an ICT system, will improve the search for all interested parties.