Taylors are
pleased to announce that our
Commercial Disputes Team has now
established a unit to support
clients wishing to mount claims
against banks which mis-sold
interest rate swaps from 2006
onwards. The Team will be happy to
hear from small and medium
enterprises (“SMEs”) or their
accountants, who may have been
affected by interest rate swap mis-selling
and wish to unravel the swap and
look to recover losses from the
banks.The media and in
particular, The Telegraph, have
recently brought this issue into
focus, following which it has
emerged that businesses of all
shapes and sizes are suffering as a
result of interest rate swap deals
they entered into unwittingly.
SMEs have no reason to be
embarrassed about admitting that
they did not take advice before
entering into these highly complex
financial instruments: the swaps are
sophisticated derivative products,
on which many SMEs’ regular
professional advisers were unlikely
to be able to give detailed advice.
Interest rate swaps can
theoretically be useful products
giving SMEs comfort in uncertain
times, but for a large number of
SMEs signing up to them they were
completely inappropriate.
Some banks encouraged SME’s to
sign up to interest swaps during a
period of predicted financial
instability, allowing customers to
believe that interest rates were
likely to go up, as they had in
previous recessions. In fact the
banks’ internal predictions
suggested that interest rates would
decrease sharply. The profit margin
for banks on these products was
significant and a major contributor
to the total profit made on lending
transactions. Banks often failed to
advise SMEs on appropriate products,
alternative options, the commission
they would receive or fundamentally
consider whether the swap was
appropriate for the particular
business. The swaps have left many
SME’s locked into paying a high
fixed rate of interest, unable to
benefit from the dramatic fall in
base rates and facing huge exit fees
if they want to get out of the swap.
A few cases have come to Court so
far but most have been settled on
confidential terms, demonstrating
that the banks are keen to avoid a
flood of litigation similar to PPI
claims. A case is soon to come to
the Court of Session in Scotland and
assuming it is not settled
beforehand, will give SMEs a better
indication of their position.
Taylors are different from the
vast majority of commercial law
firms in that we do not have any
allegiances to the banks. We are on
no “bank panels”. With our expertise
we can offer SMEs a resolute and
comprehensive service. If your
business has entered into an
interest rate swap deal and you
didn’t know what you were getting
into, we will be pleased to hear
from you to discuss a potential
action against your bank.
Please contact
tony.catterall@taylors.co.uk or
call 0844 8000 263. |