## Facts

- In 1985 and 1986, the Central Bank of Ecuador restructured and consolidated certain foreign debt of the Republic of Ecuador through a consolidation agreement with foreign creditors.
- The consolidation agreement permitted creditors to convert eligible consolidation-agreement debt into new obligations on favorable terms, which contributed to a secondary market for that debt.
- The consolidation agreement stated that conversion extinguished the principal previously owed on the converted debt, but it did not expressly address whether accrued or past-due interest was extinguished.
- The documentation left the allocation of interest between assignors and assignees in secondary-market transfers for the private parties to decide between themselves.
- Ecuador remained current on the consolidation-agreement debt until March 1987, when it became delinquent, leading to the accumulation of substantial past-due interest.
- In May 1994, as part of a sovereign-debt restructuring conducted under the Brady Plan framework, Ecuador implemented a 1994 financing plan.
- The 1994 financing plan included a Past-Due Interest Bond Exchange Agreement (PDI bond agreement), under which holders of Ecuadorian debt could receive past-due interest bonds (PDI bonds) in exchange for cancellation of Ecuador’s original obligations.
- Lloyds Bank PLC served as the closing agent under the PDI bond agreement and oversaw a reconciliation process to determine how much past-due interest each acquiror of PDI bonds was entitled to receive.
- In February 1995, Ecuador adopted a policy asserting that creditors with converted consolidation-agreement debt could collect past-due interest only if they could prove they expressly reserved the right to such interest at the time of conversion.
- Numerous creditors holding PDI bonds traceable to converted consolidation-agreement debt disputed Ecuador’s policy and continued to claim entitlement to past-due interest without the “express reservation” condition.
- Lloyds, facing competing demands, commenced an interpleader action and deposited approximately $9.8 million with the court.
- The creditor claimants moved for summary judgment seeking the interpleaded funds, and Ecuador cross-moved for summary judgment arguing (among other points) that Ecuadorian law governed the conversions and that the conversions extinguished interest rights absent an express reservation.

## Issues

1. Whether New York law (as provided in the restructuring documentation) or Ecuadorian law governed the dispute over entitlement to past-due interest tied to converted consolidation-agreement debt.
2. Whether the conversion of consolidation-agreement debt extinguished creditors’ rights to past-due interest when the relevant agreements did not expressly state that interest was cancelled.
3. Whether Ecuador could rely on its 1995 policy to deny past-due interest claims reflected in the PDI bond reconciliation and interpleader fund.

## Decision

- The court applied New York law based on the contractual choice-of-law framework governing the restructuring transactions at issue.
- The court rejected Ecuador’s attempt to recharacterize the relevant conversions as separate, Ecuador-law transactions that would override the governing contractual scheme for determining past-due interest entitlement.
- The court concluded that conversion did not eliminate past-due interest rights where the documentation expressly extinguished principal but was silent as to extinguishment of interest.
- The court held that Ecuador’s 1995 policy requiring proof of an express reservation at conversion could not defeat the creditors’ claims to past-due interest under the governing agreements.
- The court granted summary judgment to the creditor claimants and denied Ecuador’s cross-motion for summary judgment.
- The court directed distribution of the interpleaded fund to the creditor claimants entitled to the past-due interest proceeds, and Lloyds was positioned to be discharged as stakeholder following distribution consistent with the court’s order.

## Legal Principles

- Contractual choice-of-law clauses in sophisticated international finance agreements are generally enforced, and a party cannot avoid them by labeling parts of the transaction as separate local agreements when the dispute concerns rights created by the larger contractual structure.
- Under New York contract law, a release, waiver, or extinguishment of payment rights—especially in a complex debt restructuring—must be stated with clarity; language extinguishing principal does not, by itself, cancel interest when interest is not addressed.
- A novation or substitution that eliminates prior rights requires a clear manifestation of intent to discharge those rights; silence in the governing documents weighs against finding that interest claims were eliminated.
- A sovereign debtor’s later policy announcement cannot retroactively change payment rights established by contract documents governing a restructuring and relied on by creditors and market participants.
- In interpleader, a neutral stakeholder may deposit disputed funds with the court to resolve competing claims, and the court may award the fund to the party with the superior legal entitlement on summary judgment when no material fact dispute exists.

## Conclusion

The court enforced the New York law framework governing Ecuador’s debt restructuring documents and held that conversion of consolidation-agreement debt did not extinguish past-due interest when the agreements cancelled principal but did not clearly cancel interest, so the creditor claimants—rather than Ecuador—were entitled to the approximately $9.8 million interpleaded by Lloyds.


Lloyds Bank PLC v. Republic of Ecuador, 1998 WL 118170 (1998)