The turning tide: the FCA Review Process, fixed rate loans and new routes to redress

Registration & breakfast: 8.30 - 8.40am

Seminar & questions: 8.45 - 10am

Venue: 5th Floor, 125 Princes Street, Edinburgh EH2 4AD

Were you missold a swap? Are you unhappy with your outcome in or exclusion from the FCA Review Process? Then this seminar is for you!

About the Seminar:

Some 3 and a half years have now passed since the FCA announced a Review into the missale of interest rate hedging products, or swaps. Although approximately 40,000 small and medium sized businesses in the UK were missold swaps, since June 2012 only 18,000 have lodged claims with their banks, and many fewer have received redress.

Many customer sold fixed rate loans or “embedded swaps” were also excluded from the Review process despite the fact that their financial product impacted upon them in precisely the same way as a swap, with crippling breakage charges and high rates of interest.

The FCA maintain that, to date, around 13,200 customers have accepted a redress offer and £2 billion is being paid out, including more than £450 million to cover consequential losses. Categorising a “swap for a swap” offer as Redress has enabled the FCA to produce the oft quoted statistic that 90 per cent of claimants under the Review scheme have been compensated. However, a significant number of claimants have received offers with which they are very unhappy – either because their “Basic Redress” simply offers to replace the missold swap for another swap, or because their consequential loss claims have been refused outright. Even where the Review finds the product has been mis-sold, the Redress offered can be substantially less than the customer would be entitled to through the courts. Finally, many fixed rate loan customers, excluded from the Review process, are struggling with internal bank complaint procedures that rarely provide compensation.

Politicians on the Treasury Select Committee recently criticised the compensation scheme for delays and exclusions that have left hundreds of businesses dissatisfied. “The Committee remains seriously concerned about the scheme’s effectiveness and lack of transparency,” said Andrew Tyrie, who chaired it.

This seminar will look at the history of the Review, its outcomes and exclusions, and consider the options open to dissatisfied customers, including the Financial Ombudsman and new litigation routes which have recently opened up. In particular, this seminar will look at the recent cases, including Holmcroft, Suremime, Barnett Waddington, Property Alliance Group, John Glare and Thornbridge, and consider the possibilities these cases open up for Scottish swap claimants. It will also touch on funding options for those interested in litigating.

About the Participants:

Cat MacLean of MBM Commercial

Cat is the only person to have won the prestigious “Solicitor of the Year Award “ at the Law Awards of Scotland twice, in 2015 and 2012, having been nominated for the award on a total of 3 occasions. Having been an advocate for 10 years before joining MBM Commercial, she is now a Solicitor Advocate and a partner at MBM Commercial LLP, heading up their Dispute Resolution Team. She is the only Scottish member of the Financial Services Lawyers Association, and the Scottish representative of the International Banking Litigation Network, an association of law firms across Europe who are willing to handle complex claims against banks.

Andrew Mckenzie of Veritas Treasury

Andrew is a Corporate Banker with around 20 years of experience in the Scottish Banking market. He has worked on the FCA’s Interest Rate Swap Review for the last 3 years including 6 months as a file reviewer for HSBC in London. He has a good insight into how the review was designed to operate and can advise on whether or not the offer you’ve received from your Bank is fair and reasonable. He has helped a number of clients successfully challenge the Bank’s initial review decisions and more recently has been involved with claims to the Financial Ombudsman, over-ruling a number of the Banks’ review decisions.

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