Banking and Financial Markets Litigation Update - Summer 2024

This update is brought to you by RPC’s top tier banking and financial markets disputes practice in London, with specialists in all areas of financial markets litigation (and arbitration) and a wealth of expertise including frequent involvement in the most complex, high-value, and high-profile disputes in the sphere. Here, we take a look at some of the most important judgments in recent months.

The year or so since our last Banking and Financial Litigation Markets Update has been a relatively stable period in the financial markets, perhaps more so than many expected given the backdrop of the significant interest rate reset. There are evident signs of stress particularly in commercial property (as members of our team noted in the Estates Gazette earlier this year) but so far restructuring has tended to provide solutions in the UK markets. Further afield, Chinese property is seeing more dramatic stresses and defaults, and unfortunately there is significant distress in particularly African sovereign debt. None of these thematic developments have really worked their way into litigation in the English courts as yet, with financial markets cases having a disparate business-as-usual quality.

However, one noticeable theme that emerges from reviewing our commentary from the last year is the sheer proportion of financial markets disputes which now involve claims of fraud. Indeed, both of our Lawyer Top 20 cases which resulted in judgments last year were fraud claims in a banking setting (Suppipat v Narongdej, and Loreley Financing (Jersey) No 30 Ltd v Credit Suisse).

Access the full update below.