Maryam Malakotipour, 'The tail that wags the dog. The effects of secured credit on access to debt financing and financial stability, April 2024

Maryam Malakotipour defended her PhD on 8 April 2024. In her dissertation, “The Tail that Wags the Dog. The Effects of Secured Credit on Access to Debt Financing and Financial Stability”, Maryam argued that there is currently a discrepancy between the narrative of facilitating corporates’ access to financing and increasing financial stability, and the actual effects of the legal reforms in insolvency law and banking regulations. The changes to the position of secured creditors, following from legal reforms in insolvency law and banking regulations not only fail to facilitate creating a diverse funding climate and to increase financial stability, but also generate negative unintended consequences for corporates’ access to debt financing and financial stability. A thorough analysis of banks’ position as secured creditors, their governance and implications of their positions for other creditors is essential to strike a balance between managing risk, enabling growth and providing a stable access to finance. Against this background, Maryam’s dissertation provides a number of recommendations that can be taken into consideration in legislative deliberations in the context of the Preventive Restructuring Directive and the Capital Requirements Regulation to foster a vibrant funding climate and to increase financial stability.

Between September 2019 and August 2023, Maryam Malakotipour was ACLE PhD candidate at the Law & Economics group. Maryam was the first joint PhD candidate of the Amsterdam Law School and the Faculty of Economics and Business. Her position was funded by the Finance group, the ACLE, and the Amsterdam Centre for Transformative Private Law (ACT). Under the supervision by Enrico Perotti (FEB) and Rolef de Weijs (ALS), Maryam carried out research on the impact of insolvency law on the cost of capital and financial stability.

Maryam holds a Bachelor of Laws in International and European Law from the University of Groningen and was a top graduate of the first edition of the Master in Law & Finance at the University of Amsterdam.