크라이슬러와 제너럴모터스의 도산사건이 우리나라의 도산제도에 주는 시사점 - 시스템리스크와 도산절차 -

Chrysler and General Motors entered and exited bankruptcy within two months, making it one of the fastest major industrial bankruptcies in the history. They entered as companies widely thought to be ripe for liquidation if left on theirs own, obtained massive funding from the United States Government, and exited via pseudo-sale of their main assets to two new government-funded entities. Both debtors were provided with substantial government financing from U.S., and both cases involved a quick sale of the “good” parts of the debtors’ operating assets, while the remainder was left behind for liquidation. To help stabilize the U.S. automotive industry and avoid disruptions that would pose systemic risk to nation’s economy, in December 2008 the Treasury Department established the Automotive Industry Financing Program under Troubled Asset Relief Program. In both cases, U.S. government agreed to provided the automakers with DIP financing on condition that a sale of each debtor's asset occur on an expedited basis so as to preserve the value of the business, restore consumer confidence, and avoid the costs of a lengthy chapter 11 process which is systemic risk. Systemic risk is the risk of collapse of an entire financial system or entire market, as opposed to risk associated with any one individual entity, group or component of a system. It can be defined as “financial system instability,potentially catastrophic, caused or exacerbated by idiosyncratic events or conditions in financial intermediaries”. It refers to the risks imposed by bank-run and interconnectedness in a system or market, where the failure of a single entity or cluster of entities can cause a cascading failure, which could potentially bankrupt or bring down the entire system or market. Unlike the assistance of U.S. government to motor companies through the bankruptcy process, Korean government did not involved in a Ssangyong Motor bankruptcy case because Ssangyong Motor’s portion of Korean economy was so small that it could not make any threat of systemic risk. However, if Ssangyong Motor had been a big company like General Motors, the Korean government would have also given financial assistance via process of Corporate Restructuring Promotion Act not Debtor rehabilitation and bankruptcy act. Because Debtor rehabilitation and bankruptcy act does not have elements that make process fast to prevent causing the systemic risk such as automatic stay, DIP financing and prepackaged plan. Besides, the problem is that Corporate Restructuring Promotion Act is not permanent but temporary act. The Korea Ministry of Justice has proposed the change of Debtor rehabilitation and bankruptcy act including automatic stay. In addition to the proposal Debtor rehabilitation and bankruptcy act, I strongly recommend to add DIP financing and prepackaged plan on the proposal to prepare the non-financial company collapse that can make systemic risk.