Chapter 5 of Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) (CA), entitled “external administration”, deals with four types of administration, in order:

• arrangements and reconstructions;

• receivers and other controllers;

• voluntary administration; and

• winding up.

All have in common the appointment, by the company itself, by a secured creditor or by the court, of a person or persons who take control of the company or of some or all of its property in the place of the directors. These external administrators, usually specialised accountants, have for many years been subject to a statutory registration regime, but the rules about the way in which they carry out their functions have varied according to the type of administration in such areas as:

• remuneration;

• meetings of shareholders or creditors; and

• committees of inspection.

Many of these rules are now standardised by the progressive introduction of the Insolvency Practice Schedule (IPS), see Introduction. It is important to understand that “external administration” for the purposes of IPS applies only to the second two of the four types of administration, see Definitions.

At the same time, the provisions of IPS relating to the registration and disciplining of insolvency practitioners will apply to persons appointed in the first two types of administration, because of the requirement in CA that persons appointed in these types be registered liquidators, see Registering and disciplining practitioners.