Closing a Business

This topic identifies weaknesses in existing bankruptcy law and the main procedural and administrative bottlenecks in the bankruptcy process.

The table below shows the main indicators. They include:

average time to complete a procedure,
cost of the bankruptcy proceedings, and
the recovery rate, which calculates how many cents on the dollar claimants (creditors, tax authorities, and employees) recover from an insolvent firm.

"No practice" means that there have been less than 60 completed insolvency cases in the past 20 years. Click on column headers to sort data.

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Research

What's the impact of regulations on business activity? Read brief summaries of important research papers on bankruptcy.

Region or Economy	Recovery rate (cents on the dollar)	Time (years)	Cost (% of estate)
East Asia & Pacific	28.4	2.7	23.2
Eastern Europe & Central Asia	31.6	2.9	13.5
Latin America & Caribbean	26.8	3.3	15.9
Middle East & North Africa	29.9	3.5	14.1
OECD	68.6	1.7	8.4
South Asia	20.4	4.5	6.5
Sub-Saharan Africa	17.0	3.4	20.1
Afghanistan	0.0	no practice	no practice
Albania	0.0	no practice	no practice
Algeria	41.7	2.5	7
Angola	10.0	6.2	22
Antigua and Barbuda	35.5	3.0	7
Argentina	29.8	2.8	12
Armenia	41.8	1.9	4
Australia	78.8	1.0	8
Austria	71.5	1.1	18
Azerbaijan	30.1	2.7	8
Bahamas, the	54.7	5.0	4
Bahrain	63.2	2.5	10
Bangladesh	23.2	4.0	8
Belarus	33.4	5.8	22
Belgium	86.3	0.9	4
Belize	63.4	1.0	23
Benin	16.7	4.0	22
Bhutan	0.0	no practice	no practice
Bolivia	37.3	1.8	15
Bosnia and Herzegovina	35.9	3.3	9
Botswana	60.3	1.7	15
Brazil	17.1	4.0	12
Brunei Darussalam	47.2	2.5	4
Bulgaria	32.1	3.3	9
Burkina Faso	21.7	4.0	9
Burundi	0.0	no practice	no practice
Cambodia	0.0	no practice	no practice
Cameroon	25.5	3.2	15
Canada	88.7	0.8	4
Cape Verde	0.0	no practice	no practice
Central African Republic	0.0	4.8	76
Chad	0.0	no practice	no practice
Chile	21.3	4.5	15
China	35.3	1.7	22
Colombia	52.8	3.0	1
Comoros	0.0	no practice	no practice
Congo, Dem. Rep.	5.4	5.2	29
Congo, Rep.	20.4	3.0	24
Costa Rica	25.4	3.5	15
Côte d'Ivoire	34.0	2.2	18
Croatia	30.5	3.1	15
Cyprus	70.7	1.5	15
Czech Republic	20.9	6.5	15
Denmark	86.5	1.1	4
Djibouti	15.9	5.0	18
Dominica	0.0	no practice	no practice
Dominican Republic	8.9	3.5	38
Ecuador	16.1	5.3	18
Egypt, Arab Rep.	16.8	4.2	22
El Salvador	30.8	4.0	9
Equatorial Guinea	0.0	no practice	no practice
Eritrea	0.0	no practice	no practice
Estonia	37.5	3.0	9
Ethiopia	32.2	3.0	15
Fiji	20.1	1.8	38
Finland	87.3	0.9	4
France	44.7	1.9	9
Gabon	15.2	5.0	15
Gambia, the	19.5	3.0	15
Georgia	27.9	3.3	4
Germany	52.2	1.2	8
Ghana	24.0	1.9	22
Greece	44.2	2.0	9
Grenada	0.0	no practice	no practice
Guatemala	28.2	3.0	15
Guinea	22.0	3.8	8
Guinea-Bissau	0.0	no practice	no practice
Guyana	17.6	3.0	29
Haiti	2.7	5.7	30
Honduras	20.8	3.8	15
Hong Kong, China	79.8	1.1	9
Hungary	38.4	2.0	15
Iceland	76.6	1.0	4
India	15.1	7.0	9
Indonesia	13.7	5.5	18
Iran, Islamic Rep.	23.1	4.5	9
Iraq	0.0	no practice	no practice
Ireland	86.6	0.4	9
Israel	44.9	4.0	23
Italy	56.6	1.8	22
Jamaica	64.5	1.1	18
Japan	92.5	0.6	4
Jordan	27.3	4.3	9
Kazakhstan	40.6	1.5	15
Kenya	31.6	4.5	22
Kiribati	0.0	no practice	no practice
Korea, Rep.	80.5	1.5	4
Kosovo	56.8	2.0	15
Kuwait	34.5	4.2	1
Kyrgyz Republic	14.2	4.0	15
Lao PDR	0.0	no practice	no practice
Latvia	29.0	3.0	13
Lebanon	19.0	4.0	22
Lesotho	33.9	2.6	8
Liberia	8.3	3.0	43
Lithuania	49.4	1.5	7
Luxembourg	41.7	2.0	15
Macedonia, FYR	20.9	2.9	28
Madagascar	0.0	no practice	no practice
Malawi	17.5	2.6	25
Malaysia	38.6	2.3	15
Maldives	18.2	6.7	4
Mali	20.9	3.6	18
Marshall Islands	17.9	2.0	38
Mauritania	6.7	8.0	9
Mauritius	33.6	1.7	15
Mexico	64.2	1.8	18
Micronesia, Fed. Sts.	3.5	5.3	38
Moldova	28.6	2.8	9
Mongolia	22.0	4.0	8
Montenegro	43.7	2.0	8
Morocco	35.1	1.8	18
Mozambique	15.2	5.0	9
Namibia	39.5	1.5	15
Nepal	24.5	5.0	9
Netherlands	82.7	1.1	4
New Zealand	76.2	1.3	4
Nicaragua	34.3	2.2	15
Niger	14.0	5.0	18
Nigeria	28.0	2.0	22
Norway	89.0	0.9	1
Oman	35.1	4.0	4
Pakistan	39.2	2.8	4
Palau	38.2	1.0	23
Panama	32.4	2.5	18
Papua New Guinea	24.7	3.0	23
Paraguay	20.7	3.9	9
Peru	25.4	3.1	7
Philippines	4.4	5.7	38
Poland	29.8	3.0	20
Portugal	69.4	2.0	9
Puerto Rico	55.2	3.8	8
Qatar	52.7	2.8	22
Romania	28.5	3.3	11
Russian Federation	28.2	3.8	9
Rwanda	0.0	no practice	no practice
Samoa	14.3	2.5	38
São Tomé and Principe	0.0	no practice	no practice
Saudi Arabia	37.5	1.5	22
Senegal	31.6	3.0	7
Serbia	25.4	2.7	23
Seychelles	0.0	no practice	no practice
Sierra Leone	8.5	2.6	42
Singapore	91.3	0.8	1
Slovak Republic	45.9	4.0	18
Slovenia	45.5	2.0	8
Solomon Islands	23.6	1.0	38
South Africa	32.2	2.0	18
Spain	73.2	1.0	15
Sri Lanka	43.4	1.7	5
St. Kitts and Nevis	0.0	no practice	no practice
St. Lucia	42.9	2.0	9
St. Vincent and the Grenadines	0.0	no practice	no practice
Sudan	0.0	no practice	no practice
Suriname	8.1	5.0	30
Swaziland	34.9	2.0	15
Sweden	75.1	2.0	9
Switzerland	46.8	3.0	4
Syrian Arab Republic	29.5	4.1	9
Taiwan, China	80.9	1.9	4
Tajikistan	25.4	3.0	9
Tanzania	21.3	3.0	22
Thailand	42.4	2.7	36
Timor-Leste	0.0	no practice	no practice
Togo	26.6	3.0	15
Tonga	25.2	2.7	22
Trinidad and Tobago	0.0	no practice	no practice
Tunisia	52.3	1.3	7
Turkey	20.2	3.3	15
Uganda	41.1	2.2	30
Ukraine	9.1	2.9	42
United Arab Emirates	10.2	5.1	30
United Kingdom	84.2	1.0	6
United States	76.7	1.5	7
Uruguay	43.0	2.1	7
Uzbekistan	18.7	4.0	10
Vanuatu	41.2	2.6	38
Venezuela, R.B.	6.0	4.0	38
Vietnam	18.0	5.0	15
West Bank and Gaza	0.0	no practice	no practice
Yemen, Rep.	28.6	3.0	8
Zambia	30.2	2.7	9
Zimbabwe	0.0	3.3	22

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Closing a Business

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