We reviewed the enforcement outcomes of 28 cross-border secured bond defaults across the Nordics, the UK, the Netherlands and Luxembourg between 2019 and 2025.

In 11 of the 28 cases, senior-secured creditors recovered less than expected because of perfection gaps — most commonly missing local-law security confirmations after intra-group reorganisations.

The note categorises the gaps into five recurring patterns and proposes an annual lien-integrity attestation that trustees can request from issuers without amending the underlying security documents.