Secured Lending in Eastern Europe Comparative Law of Secured Transactions and the EBRD Model Law

Based upon the work done to prepare and implement a Model Law drawn up for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), this book provides a comparative account of the laws relating to secured lending in the 27 EBRD member states in Eastern Europe (including Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Russia and the Slovak Republic). Since many of the former Soviet-bloc countries have joined the EU, increasing amounts of money are being invested by western companies and financial institutions into Eastern Europe generally. Knowledge of the applicable laws relating to security is vital to such investment and lending. This is an explanatory and practical book. Throughout the book the theme will be what characteristics make a security law useful from a practical point of view. Hence, the purpose of the book is not merely to describe existing rules on security but to concentrate on how those rules can be made practical. The EBRD's Model Law on Secured Transactions and the EBRD's Core Principles for a Modern Security Law serve as basic reference points. In addition, the author introduces a comparative perspective in order to make the reader aware of significant differences between various national security laws. The main reference systems are English, German and US-American law. The principles of security law developed under western legal systems are contrasted with the principles of security law as they can now be described after 15 years of legal reforms in central and eastern European countries.

Jan-Hendrik Rover is a managing partner of Asset Capital Partners, an investment banking firm with offices in Munich and Moscow. Previously he was heading the equity funds and asset based mezzanine group in the Project and Asset Based Financing division of Bayerische Hypo- und Vereinsbank AG, Munich. For several years he worked in the legal department of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in London. There he was involved in the drafting of a model law on secured transactions (1994), which is used by central and eastern European countries for the reform of their security laws. Dr. Rover studied law in Bonn, Geneva, Strasbourg, Munich, Speyer and at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He is dually qualified as an attorney in Germany and a barrister in England and Wales. His book on comparative law (Vergleichende Prinzipien dinglicher Sicherheiten, Munich 1999) was awarded both the Jean Rey prize and the Bruno Heck prize.