The Official Receiver's Office administers the estates of individuals adjudged to be bankrupt by the court. The estates of companies ordered to be wound up by the court are generally administered by insolvency practitioners from the private sector.

The Official Receiver or the insolvency practitioner appointed by him under a tendering scheme becomes the receiver of an individual debtor or provisional liquidator of a company when a bankruptcy order against the property of the debtor is made or a winding-up order against the company is made. Where the assets of an estate do not exceed $200,000, the Official Receiver or the insolvency practitioner appointed by him is usually appointed the trustee or the liquidator by way of a summary procedure order. In other cases, a meeting of creditors in bankruptcy, or meetings of creditors and contributories in compulsory liquidations, will be convened to decide whether the Official Receiver, the insolvency practitioner appointed by him or some other persons from the private sector should be appointed the trustee or liquidator.

When acting as the trustee or liquidator, the Official Receiver or the insolvency practitioner appointed by him investigates the affairs of the bankrupt or the wound-up company, realises assets and distributes dividends to creditors. The Official Receiver also prosecutes certain offences set out in the Bankruptcy and Companies Ordinances, applies for disqualification orders against unfit company directors, monitors the conduct of outside liquidators and trustees, and monitors the funds held by liquidators in both compulsory and voluntary liquidations.

During the year, the court made 13 593 bankruptcy orders, 2 313 interim orders in individual voluntary arrangements and 1 147 winding-up orders, compared with last year's respective figures of 24 922, 2 743 and 1 248. The assets realised by the Official Receiver during 2004 amounted to $133.4 million, while $144.1 million in dividends was paid to creditors in 2 054 insolvency cases. There were 1 092 cases assigned under the scheme for contracting out of summary winding-up cases.

The Bankruptcy (Amendment) Bill 2004 was introduced into the Legislative Council in October 2004 to facilitate the Official Receiver to outsource summary bankruptcy cases to private-sector insolvency practitioners and make other minor miscellaneous amendments. The Bill aims to set up an outsourcing regime similar to the one in the Companies Ordinance for summary company liquidation cases. Upon passage of the Bill, the Official Receiver will have the authority to directly appoint a private-sector insolvency practitioner to administer summary bankruptcy cases (where the value of the bankrupt's estate is unlikely to exceed $200,000) without the need to convene a creditors' meeting. As at the end of 2004, the Bill is being scrutinised by the Legislative Council.