Comparative Approaches to Bank Liquidation: A Discussion of the UNIDROIT Legislative Guide

Bank failures can have wide-ranging effects on the economy, public finances, and everyday financial stability.

Understanding how banks are liquidated helps explain how governments protect depositors, maintain trust in the financial system, and prevent financial crises from spreading. The discussion sheds light on how these issues affect countries at different stages of economic development.

This panel discussion will focus on the UNIDROIT Legislative Guide on Bank Liquidation (2025), a resource addressed to policymakers. The panel will examine the key policy choices identified in the Guide and analyse these from the perspectives of both developed and developing countries. In doing so, it will highlight common challenges as well as jurisdiction-specific considerations, and explore how the Guide can support effective and orderly bank resolution frameworks across different legal systems.

At this event, you will hear from the following speakers:

Myrte Thijssen (Senior Legal Officer, UNIDROIT, Rome, Italy; CBLP Advisory Board member)
Myrte works as a Senior Legal Officer at the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (UNIDROIT), where she is currently mainly responsible for the UNIDROIT Legislative Guide on Bank Liquidation, the Workstream on Financial Markets and Technology, the UNIDROIT Foundation, and the project on International Investment Contracts. Before joining UNIDROIT, Myrte worked for the Dutch Central Bank, the Single Resolution Board, and the Italian national development bank. Myrte studied at the University of Amsterdam and New York University. She has taught Corporate Law and Law of Bank Crisis Management at the University of Amsterdam and the University of Bologna, respectively. She has published several articles in the field of banking and financial law with a particular focus on bank resolution.

Winifred Tarinyeba Kiryabwire (Associate Professor of Law, School of Law at Makerere University, Uganda; CBLP Advisory Board member)
Winnie is an Associate Professor of Law at the School of Law at Makerere University, Uganda, where she teaches Corporate Finance Law, Corporate Governance, Law of Banking and Law of Business Associations. She is a member of INSOL International and the International Insolvency Institute. She is an advisory member of the Singapore Global Restructuring Initiative, a member of the Ideation Committee and Emerging Markets and Developing Economies task force of the Insolvency Law Academy (India) and a member of the Academic Coordination Committee for the Postgraduate Insolvency Program at National Law University, Delhi.

Virág Blazsek (Associate Professor of Law, University of Leeds School of Law, United Kingdom)
Virág is an Associate Professor of Law and Deputy Director of the CBLP at the University of Leeds School of Law. She writes on international business, banking, and financial law. She is the author of Banking Bailout Law: A Comparative Study of the United States, United Kingdom and the European Union (Routledge, 2020). In this book, she reconstructs a regulatory framework that may better serve countries during future financial crises. She has previously served as a visiting scholar and visiting professor at Fordham University School of Law, Columbia Law School, Emory Law School, Hult International Business School, and Eötvös Loránd University. Earlier in her career, she practised law for a decade as an attorney in law firms and in the financial sector, including at OTP Bank Plc’s Legal Directorate in Budapest, Hungary, Winston & Strawn's Paris Office, and at the Office of Investment Management of the United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund in New York City.

Pleae register for this free online only event here.