header-logo header-logo

Extra time

25 July 2014 / David Pope
Issue: 7616 / Categories: Features , Commercial
printer mail-detail
commercial_pope

Swaps mis-selling litigation is not over yet, says David Pope

Limitation is looming large in swaps mis-selling litigation. Most of the swaps and other interest-rate hedging products (IRHPs) about which bank customers have complained were sold in or before 2008. The usual six-year limitation period, which generally runs at latest from the date of sale, has therefore expired in most cases. Any new mis-selling claim is likely to be met with a limitation defence. Many existing claims already have been.

The recent decision in Kays Hotels Ltd v Barclays Bank plc [2014] EWHC 1927 may have thrown customers a limitation lifeline, however. For Mr Justice Hamblen refused to strike out a mis-selling claim on limitation grounds even though proceedings began seven years after the IRHP in question was sold.

Facts of Kays Hotels

The customer in Kays Hotels ran a small hotel near Ipswich. In late 2005, it borrowed £1.34 million from Barclays and, as a hedge against its interest-rate exposure under the loan, it entered into a form of IRHP known as

If you are not a subscriber, subscribe now to read this content
If you are already a subscriber sign in
...or Register for two weeks' free access to subscriber content

MOVERS & SHAKERS

DWF—19 appointments

DWF—19 appointments

Belfast team bolstered by three senior hires and 16 further appointments

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

Firm strengthens leveraged finance team with London partner hire

Knights—Ella Dodgson & Rebecca Laffan

Knights—Ella Dodgson & Rebecca Laffan

Double hire marks launch of family team in Leeds

NEWS
In this week's NLJ, Steven Ball of Red Lion Chambers unpacks how advances in forensic science finally unmasked Ryland Headley, jailed in 2025 for the 1967 rape and murder of 75-year-old Louisa Dunne. Preserved swabs and palm prints lay dormant for decades until DNA-17 profiling produced a billion-to-one match
Charlie Mercer and Astrid Gillam of Stewarts crunch the numbers on civil fraud claims in the English courts, in this week's NLJ. New data shows civil fraud claims rising steadily since 2014, with the King’s Bench Division overtaking the Commercial Court as the forum of choice for lower-value disputes
Bea Rossetto of the National Pro Bono Centre makes the case for ‘General Practice Pro Bono’—using core legal skills to deliver life-changing support, without the need for niche expertise—in this week's NLJ
Charles Pigott of Mills & Reeve reports on Haynes v Thomson, the first judicial application of the Supreme Court’s For Women Scotland ruling in a discrimination claim, in this week's NLJ
The Supreme Court issued a landmark judgment in July that overturned the convictions of Tom Hayes and Carlo Palombo, once poster boys of the Libor and Euribor scandal. In NLJ this week, Neil Swift of Peters & Peters considers what the ruling means for financial law enforcement
back-to-top-scroll