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

When acting as the trustee or liquidator, the Official Receiver or the insolvency practitioner 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 9 810 bankruptcy orders, 934 interim orders in individual voluntary arrangements and 849 winding-up orders, compared with last year's respective figures of 13 593, 2 313 and 1 147. The assets realised by the Official Receiver during 2005 amounted to $157.9 million, while $182.0 million in dividends was paid to creditors in 2 650 insolvency cases. There were 800 cases assigned under the scheme for contracting out summary winding-up cases.

The Bankruptcy (Amendment) Ordinance 2005 was enacted on July 15, 2005. Among other things, the ordinance empowers the Official Receiver to directly appoint a private-sector insolvency practitioner to administer debtor petition 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. When the ordinance and the relevant subsidiary legislation come into effect, the Official Receiver will start to outsource the summary bankruptcy cases.