Main articles: UK banking law, Banking law, and Security interest

Aside from pari passu or a priority scheme, historical insolvency laws used many methods for distributing losses. The Talmud (ca 200AD) envisaged that each remaining penny would be dealt out to each creditor in turn, until a creditor received all he was owed, or the money ran out. This meant the small creditors were more likely to be paid in full than large and powerful creditors.[37]The priority system is reinforced by a line of case law, whose principle is to ensure that creditors cannot contract out of the statutory regime:       ...