Jersey introduces new statutory administration regime: might the BVI follow suit?

A significant step forward for corporate rescue and restructuring in Jersey

On 19 June 2026, Jersey introduced a corporate administration regime through the Companies (Jersey) Amendment No. 2 Law 2026. 

The regime allows the Royal Court to appoint an administrator, who must be on the List of Approved Liquidators and Administrators in Jersey, to: (1) rescue a financially distressed company; or (2) achieve a better outcome for creditors than a winding up. The administrator has broad powers to manage the business and a statutory moratorium protects the company from most creditor actions. 

The legislation represents a significant development in Jersey's insolvency framework, filling a long-standing gap by providing a dedicated restructuring and rescue tool that sits alongside the island's existing, terminal liquidation procedures (Désastre and Creditors' Winding Up).

Although Jersey’s new regime has been heavily influenced by the administration procedure in England and Wales, there are several important differences.

How do the regimes compare?

Secured creditors

The most significant distinction concerns the treatment of secured creditors.

In England and Wales, the administration moratorium generally bites on all creditors, including secured creditors. By contrast, Jersey has deliberately adopted a more creditor-friendly approach, with secured creditors remaining entitled to enforce their security as the moratorium does not apply to them.

This approach is likely to be welcomed by banks and other secured lenders using Jersey structures in financing transactions. Equally, it means that administrators will more than ever need to engage closely with secured creditors from the outset. A secured creditor dissatisfied with a proposed restructuring strategy retains the option of enforcing its security, potentially influencing the direction and outcome of the administration.

Methods of appointment

A further point of divergence is the method of appointment. Whilst administrators can be appointed 'out of court' in England and Wales, Jersey has opted for a wholly court-led process. 

An administrator may only be appointed upon the application of the company, a creditor with a liquidated claim of at least £3,000, a liquidator or, in certain limited circumstances, a government minister. The requirement for court involvement is likely to increase judicial oversight of the administration process as it progresses.

Statutory objectives

Whilst the Jersey regime has broadly adopted the same statutory objectives as in England and Wales, the Jersey regime does not include the third statutory purpose (realising property in order to make a distribution to one or more secured or preferential creditors). 

Will the BVI be next?

Whilst the BVI's Insolvency Act 2003 includes an administration regime under Part III, it is still yet to be enacted and is also largely based on the 'old' pre-Enterprise Act 2002 regime in England and Wales, which similar to Jersey does not permit out of Court appointments.

No timetable has been announced for the implementation of Part III. There has been support within the BVI insolvency community for Part III's commencement and indications in recent years that this remains under consideration, with a noticeably more open attitude by the BVI government than earlier suggestions that the provisions might never be brought into force.

An explanation for Part III's continued dormancy is that the BVI has otherwise filled the gap through its alternative, evolving restructuring framework, including plans of arrangement, schemes of arrangement and Part II creditor arrangements. Latterly, court-supervised provisional liquidation, including the development of 'light-touch' provisional liquidators, has provided an additional mechanism with the benefit of a contingent moratorium. Receivership and administrative receivership also continue to play a significant role in secured lending scenarios.

More recently, the BVI has looked towards restructuring reforms with the introduction of the restructuring officer regime under the Insolvency (Amendment) Act of 2022, which came into force in March 2023. Like administration, it applies where a company is insolvent or likely to become so, is a standalone rescue procedure, provides a moratorium on creditor action, provides for court supervision, is a collective process and there is an independent office holder.

Whilst there are important differences with the administration regime in England and Wales, the restructuring officer regime was designed with the typical BVI company in mind: a holding company at the apex of an international group requiring a cross-border debt restructuring rather than an operational rescue. Unlike the traditional administration model, which developed around trading businesses with employees and domestic assets, the restructuring officer regime reflects the reality of modern offshore corporate groups.

Whether administration ultimately arrives in the BVI may depend less on legislative appetite and more on whether practitioners can identify a restructuring need that existing mechanisms do not already meet.