COVID-19 re Annual General Meetings and other Compliances, and relief-funding

INDONESIA

• March 2021

  KSP Indosurya : The pandemic has caused several savings and loan cooperatives to face a decline in loan repayments. Members have withdrawn their savings, burdening the cooperatives with a decline in equity and complicating their internal consolidation and member services.

• February 2021

  Major liberalisation of FDI rules

  Acting on the mandate provided by Law No. 25 of 2007 on Investment (the “Investment Law”), as amended by Law No. 11 of 2020 on Job Creation (the “Job Creation Law”), the Government of Indonesia has issued a new implementing regulation for the Investment Law: Presidential Regulation No. 10 of 2021 on Foreign Direct Investment and Lines of Business (the “New List”). 51 sectors reserved for cooperatives and SMEs.

LUXEMBOURG

• JUNE 2020Extension Of Deadlines For Disclosing Financial Statements And Other Reporting

  Following the Law of 12 May 2020 on the extension of certain deadlines provided for in the sectorial laws of the financial sector during the state of crisis (the Financial Sector Extension Law), the Luxembourg legislator has now enacted a distinct law applicable to Luxembourg companies generally and which extends the deadlines for convening annual general meetings and for filing and disclosing annual accounts, consolidated accounts as well as related reports during the state of emergency (the "General Extension Law). The Council of the European Union has also adopted on an urgency basis a regulation providing for an extension of the period during which the 2020 general meeting of European companies (SEs) and European Cooperative Societies (SCEs) must be held

FRANCE

• JUNE 2020Coronavirus Covid-19 : Prorogation Des Délais D'approbation Des Comptes Annuels Des Groupements De Droit Privé

  Prise sur le fondement de la loi n°2020-290 du 23 mars 2020 d'urgence pour faire face à l'épidémie de covid-19, l'ordonnance n°2020-318 du 25 mars 2020 portant adaptation portant adaptation des règles relatives à l'établissement, l'arrêté, l'audit, la revue, l'approbation et la publication des comptes et des autres documents et informations que les personnes morales et entités dépourvues de personnalité morale de droit privé sont tenues de déposer ou publier dans le contexte de l'épidémie de covid-19 est venue apporter des dérogations temporaires de nature exceptionnelle en matière notamment d'approbation des comptes.

  A titre liminaire, nous rappelons que le champ d'application de l'ordonnance n°2020-318 est large puisqu'il concerne toutes les personnes morales et les groupements sans personnalité morale de droit privé (ci-après les « Entités Concernées  »), notamment :

• Les sociétés civiles et commerciales (sociétés anonymes, sociétés par actions simplifiées, société à responsabilité limitée, sociétés en nom collectif, etc.),

• Les associations, fondations et fonds de dotation,

• Les groupements d'intérêt économique et groupements européens d'intérêt économique,

• Les coopératives,

• Les mutuelles, unions de mutuelles, etc.

GERMANY

• February 2021

  Formations of German Limited Liability Companies, Filing of Deeds and InformationThe draft law provides for a number of new regulations intended to implement the EU’s directive on digitization. Because the directive stipulates, for example, that essential company information has to be available for free, the fees for retrieving information from the commercial and cooperative registers are to be eliminated in the future. Furthermore, annual financial statements of companies will no longer have to be published in the Federal Gazette, but will only have to be published by being posted in the company register.The draft law still requires the Bundestag’s approval.

• June 2020

  COVID-19: Are purely virtual general meetings of cooperative societies also permitted?

  The new legal regulation provides for general meetings of cooperatives to be held without a regulation of the Rules and without personal attendance. To this intent, the Act amends section 43 (7) of the German Cooperatives Act to the effect that members' resolutions can also be passed in writing or electronically if this is not expressly outlined in the cooperatives' Rules. In this case the board must ensure that the minutes are accompanied by a list of members who have participated in the passing of resolutions in accordance with section 47 German Cooperatives Act. The method of voting must be noted for each member who participated in the passing of the resolution.

International

• 2020

  Reproduction of blog by Ed Mayo (former SG, Co-ops UK) and VP Cooperatives Europe. Source YourPublic Value

  The power of cooperation constantly increases with the lockdown. While we experience social distancing, our need to exchange and collaborate is growing. How will small and medium entreprises (SMEs) survive the crisis? Cooperatives have found a way to keep going, relying on each other and enlarging cooperation.

INDIA

• 2021

  Allowing physical meetingaIn view of a spike in COVID-19 cases, the Maharashtra government, on Thursday, issued a notification, whereby the annual general meetings of urban cooperative banks (UCBs) and cooperative housing societies (CHS) with less than 50 members can take place offline. However, those having above 50 members will have to be conducted through video conference or other audio-visual means. The notification was issued by the cooperation department desk officer Anil Chaudhari. He has, however, underlined that it will be the sole responsibility of UCBs and CHS to maintain all the records of the annual general meetings (AGMs).

• 2020

  Multistate cooperative societies circulars

• 2020

  Elections post COVID-19

  The state government of Maharashtra had postponed elections to the district central cooperative banks, urban cooperative banks, primary agriculture cooperative societies, sugar factories, spinning mills, market committees, milk federations, credit societies, employees' credit societies, cooperative housing societies, consumer societies and labour associations citing the COVID-19 pandemic. The government, on March 18, 2020 had announced postponement of these elections up to June 17, 2020, and later again to December 31, 2020. Further, on January 16, 2021, the government had issued notification further deferring the poll till March 31 this year.

• 2020In a relief to the Maharashtra government, the Bombay High Court recently dismissed a plea that had challenged the state’s decision to postpone elections to cooperative societies, including housing societies, district central cooperative banks and sugar factories. The government had given an extension to the managing committees of the societies in view of the pandemicCopy of the Judgement

• 2020Mumbai cooperatives:AGMs

  Urban cooperative banks and cooperative housing societies with less than 50 members can be held offline

• 2020

  RBI Allows One-Time Loan Restructuring For The Stressed Borrowers

  The Reserve Bank of India ("RBI") in order to curb the effect of COVID-19 over the economy, has introduced a Resolution Framework ("Resolution") for dealing with the stressed assets during the pandemic. It is important to assess the stress induced by the pandemic as it can hamper the ability of the borrowers to repay the loans. Therefore, RBI on August 6, 20201  announced a one-time special window for lenders in order to restructure the current loans, which will further allow them to change repayment terms for their borrowers who have been hit by the COVID-19 lockdown. The intention behind bringing out the Resolution is to help borrowers who are dealing with the liquidity and repayment issues due to the pandemic.

  The facility of loan restructuring is only available to businesses or individuals who are suffering the COVID-induced stress. Further, only those borrower's accounts which are not in default for more than 30 days with the lending institution as on March 1st, 2020 are eligible for the loan restructuring. Moreover, the following entities would not be included:

1. As on March 1, 2020, the MSME borrowers whose aggregate exposure to lending institutions collectively is 25cr or less

2. Loans given to the Central and State Governments, local Government bodies, Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) or Farmers' Service Societies (FSS)

3. Loans granted by lenders to their own personnel or staff; and

Further, it is very important to note that the loans taken from non-banking organisations are also included in the Resolution framework's ambit. Therefore organisations whose loans are eligible for resolution would include all Commercial Banks (including Small Finance Banks, Local Area Banks and Regional Rural Banks), all Primary (Urban) Co-operative Banks/State Co-operative Banks/ District Central Co-operative Banks, all All-India Financial Institutions, all Non-Banking Financial Companies (including HFCs).

TURKEY

• FEBRUARY 2021

  Certain Loan Debts Of Tradesmen And Artisans Who Are Aggrieved Due To Covid-19

  The Presidential Decree ("Decree") published in the Official Gazette dated  04.02.2021 and numbered 31385 regulates the procedures and principles regarding the deferral of debts arising from low-interest loans used with the guarantee of Tradesmen and Craftsmen Credit and Guarantee Cooperatives ("TCCGC")  or directly from HalkBank, by the tradesmen and craftsmen whose businesses are economically damaged due to COVID-19 and who are operating throughout Turkey under the Turkey Tradesmen and Craftsmen Credit and Guarantee Cooperatives Central Union.

IRELAND

• 2020

  New legislation allows Irish credit unions can now hold virtual AGMs.

  The act was adopted in response to the health risk posed by Covid-19. Credit unions have been given an interim period of up to 30 April 2021 to determine how to convene an AGM, taking into account what is in their own rules. This period can be extended if needed.

• Full text of the Amendment of the Credit Union Act , 1997 - legal text

THE PHILIPPINES

• 2020

  Philippine economic stimulus law now in effect

  On 11 September 2020, President Rodrigo Duterte signed into law Republic Act No. 11494, otherwise known as the Bayanihan to Recover as One Act, which details the measures to be implemented by the Philippine government to stimulate and accelerate the recovery of the Philippine economy from the adverse impact brought about the by the COVID-19 pandemic.

  The law provides a minimum 30-day grace period on residential rents and commercial rents of lessees not permitted to work and medium, small and micro enterprises MSMEs) and cooperatives ordered to not operate during the community quarantine, without incurring interests, penalties, fees, and other charges. Any increase in rent during the same period shall be prohibited; [full text of the law is on the thread on Recent Amendments]

PORTUGAL

• 2021

  Decree-law 6-C/2021 extends the extraordinary support for the gradual resumption of activity in companies in a situation of business crisis with a temporary reduction of the normal working period (PNT), under the Economic and Social Stabilisation Programme and creates new simplified support for micro-enterprises in business crisis, with a view to maintaining jobs.