Lawyer chief calls for single insolvency practice regulator

The lawyer appointed this week as the new president of R3 - the group representing insolvency and other business recovery practitioners - has called for a single regulator to supervise the profession.

John Verrill, head of insolvency at City firm Lawrence Graham, criticised the current regime of regulation of IPs, which is divided between the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants and the Joint Insolvency Examination Board.

He said the difference in approaches of the bodies deprived IPs of consistency.

Mr Verrill said a lawyer would bring a new perspective to R3: 'Lawyers have a different political standpoint in the sense that most accountants are dependent on good relations with the clearing banks, whereas lawyers can be more objective about the position in terms of their ability to speak out.'

He said R3 would facilitate an action to clarify the Brumark ruling - a 2001 decision impairing the ability of banks to take all proceeds collected from an insolvent company's debtors to pay off that company's debts.

Jeremy Fleming