Accountant in Bankruptcy (AiB) is an Agency of the Scottish Government. The Agency operates independently and impartially whilst remaining directly accountable to Scottish Ministers.
AiB Roles and Responsibilities
AiB supervise the process of bankruptcy in Scotland and act as trustee when appointed by the Court. In doing so, the Agency:
develops policy for personal and corporate insolvency and diligence in Scotland;
supervises the regulation of the bankruptcy process including the performance of trustees and commissioners in the exercise of their statutory duty;
regulates and supervise the registration and administration of PTDs, including the performance of trustees;
investigates and applies for Bankruptcy Restriction Orders or agree Bankruptcy Restriction Undertakings (BRO/BRU);
determines debtors' applications for bankruptcy;
maintains a public Register of Insolvencies (RoI), which records details of bankruptcies awarded by the Scottish courts or by the Agency. The Register also records PTDs, BROs and BRUs as well as company insolvencies in Scotland;
acts as trustee in all bankruptcies awarded by the Agency, where The Accountant does not appoint a person to be the trustee;
acts as trustee in all bankruptcies awarded by the sheriff courts, where a sheriff does not appoint a person to be trustee;
acts as interim trustee before the award of bankruptcy except in those cases where an alternative interim trustee is appointed when nominated by the petitioning creditor;
acts as trustee as appointed by the sheriff on the resignation or death of the original trustee where no new trustee is elected;
is responsible for the registration of company insolvency documents required to be filed by receivers and liquidators in terms of the Insolvency Act 1986;
undertakes the functions of commissioners in bankruptcies where none are elected by creditors; and
develop policy for the Debt Arrangement Scheme (DAS) and act as DAS administrator; maintaining the DAS Register, approving Debt Payment Programmes (DPP) and approving money advisors and payment distributors to operate under the DAS arrangements.You can find out more about DAS on the Money Scotland website, or by telephoning 0845 612 6460 and asking for the DAS team.
The Accountant also employs private insolvency practitioners to act as her agents.
Full details of our Statutory Functions are available.
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