The place where a debtor conducts the administration of its interests on a regular basis and which is ascertainable by third parties, where initiating or considering insolvency proceedings.

The term is used principally (for EU member states) in Regulation (EU) 2015/848 on insolvency proceedings (Recast Insolvency Regulation), and (in the UK) in the form of that regulation as imported into English law at the end of the UK-EU transition period (Retained Insolvency Regulation). It is also used in the UNCITRAL Model Law on Cross-Border Insolvency (Model Law) (and, in English law, the Cross-Border Insolvency Regulations 2006 (SI 2006/1030) (the legislation by which Great Britain adopted the Model Law).

The Recast Insolvency Regulation uses the concept of COMI to determine in which member state (if any) of the EU (other than Denmark) insolvency proceedings should be opened and which member state's laws takes precedence if competing insolvency procedures are commenced in different member states, and to ensure recognition and co-operation for those proceedings.

The Retained Insolvency Regulation uses the term as one criterion for determining whether the English courts have jurisdiction to open insolvency proceedings.

The Model Law uses the concept of COMI to determine the degree to which the courts of one jurisdiction are obliged to recognise and assist insolvency proceedings commenced in a different jurisdiction.

There is in most cases a rebuttable presumption that a corporate debtor's COMI is the location of its registered office.

For more information on COMI, see Practice note, Forum shopping in insolvency proceedings. For information on the importing of the Recast Insolvency Regulation into English law at the end of the UK-EU transition period, see Practice note: overview, The Recast Insolvency Regulation: Brexit and the UK and Practice note, Brexit: restructuring and insolvency: the transition period and after: Exit Regulations: the detail.