D-DebtCon was an innovative event which was live in 9 countries and 5 different continents under the auspices of the Sovereign Debt Forum (SDF),which is a joint venture between CCLS/QMUL, Georgetown and European University Institute.The London Leg of D-DebtCon took place on 16 September 2020. It consisted of a Policy Session, and an Academic Session, followed by a keynote presentation.

Prof. Rodrigo Olivares-Caminal (QMUL) was the Moderator/Chair of the Policy Session, on “Revisiting CACs” The panellists of this session were Charles Blitzer (Blitzer Consulting) Ian Clark (White & Case), Eric LeCompte (Jubilee USA), Yan Liu (IMF) and Deborah Zandstra (Clifford Chance). The panellists analysed the current status quo and the evolution of CACs and their standing after the “acid tests” of Argentina and Ecuador. It was agreed that CACs are a critical component to facilitate a debt restructuring but not a panacea. They also insisted that CACs are living organisms that need to continue evolving to encompass future workouts.

Prof. Rosa Lastra (QMUL) was the Moderator/Chair of the Academic Session on “Considering Domestic & External Arrears”. David Beers (Bank of England) and Tim Willems (IMF) conformed the Academic panel, which presented a forthcoming paper. They intended to answer the following question: “Do Markets Care About Domestic Arrears? Should We?” This paper introduces a database on “domestic arrears”, i.e. late payments by governments for goods and services.

The Keynote Speaker, Lee Buchheit (QMUL) discussed Sovereign Debt Restructuring in a post-Covid era. He stressed that the cases of Argentina and Ecuador are not the first workouts of the Covid era, but the last of the pre-Covid era. He stated that there is a possibility that the world will suffer a systemic (10 to 20 countries) sovereign debt crisis as a result of Covid. There are some resemblances to the 1980s crisis, where 27 countries had to restructure. He made a summary of the 1980s Latin American Crisis, labelled as the “lost decade”, and insisted that there is a significant risk is that something similar might happen as a result of the Covid pandemic.

CCLS brings you the opportunity to revisit this event by providing you with the links to the videos of all the sessions, including the one hosted in London, in the links below. We hope you enjoyed our D-Debtcon sessions and we encourage you to continue engaging in sovereign debt law and policy at future DebtCon sessions and to continue to participate in SDF events.