Regulator empanels insolvency professionals to save NCLT’s time

The list will be renewed with additions after six months

The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) has empanelled insolvency professionals who can act as interim resolution professionals (IRPs) and resolution professionals (RPs) in cases filed by operational creditors, such as vendors and suppliers.

The insolvency regulator has graded professionals based on the number of assignments pending with them. The professional with the least number of assignments in hand has got the highest ranking. The list of IPs has been referred to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) benches to pick IRPs.

The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC)-2016 has a provision for appointing an RP by the NCLT where the operational creditor has not recommended one.

According to a circular, the names of these insolvency professionals will be valid for a period of six months, till June 2018. The list will be renewed with additions for the further six months.

“The eligible IPs will be included in the panel in order of the volume of ongoing assignments they have in hand. The IP who has the lowest volume of ongoing assignments will get a score of 100 and will be at the top of the panel. The IP who has the highest volume of ongoing assignments will get a score of 0. The difference between the highest volume and the lowest volume will be equated to 100 and other IPs will get scores between 0 and 100 depending on the volume of their ongoing assignments,” says the circular.

A senior official from the IBBI told Business Standard, “We have spotted that in many such cases, time is lost in communication. At times, we have to invite multiple expression of interests for cases when only one person is going to get the job. Just to cut time, we have issued this list and the NCLT can choose immediately.”

This list will be based on monitoring done by the regulator. The professional’s behaviour will be monitored and taken into account for him to be eligible.

Recently, the regulator issued a circular restricting insolvency professionals from using different e-mail addresses to communicate. “We have found cases where IPs use different addresses, which makes it difficult to track them. If an IP is operating from different addresses, he must still mention his original address and then the fact that they are operating from a satellite office,” an IBBI official said.

In the circular, the IBBI has asked all insolvency professionals to mention their name and registration number in all communications.