With LIBOR due to disappear by end-2021, work has been underway to facilitate the transition from LIBOR and other IBORs to alternative risk free rates (RFRs). The derivatives market has been at the forefront of the transition and is some distance further ahead than other financial markets. In particular, ISDA has recently published the 2020 … Read more

Welcome to the Autumn 2020 edition of our biannual Banking Litigation Update, in which we highlight a number of the most important cases and developments affecting UK financial institutions over the past six months. Read the full Banking Litigation Update here. We have also recorded a short video to provide a high level overview of … Read more

We are excited to launch the 2020 edition of our Global Bank Review, #disruption. While the banks sector has faced significant challenges before, the depth and breadth of Covid-19’s disruption has left banks in the position of having to brace for impact to their own businesses, whilst simultaneously demonstrating a change in culture, providing support … Read more

The Journal of International Banking Law and Regulation (JIBLR) has published an article written by members of our securities class action practice: Capital Raisings and Opportunistic M&A in a Covid-19 Environment—Lessons Learned from the Global Financial Crisis. Covid-19 will make it inevitable that some companies will need to bolster their capital positions, which will lead … Read more

One of the key features of the commercial litigation landscape in England and Wales is that costs generally follow the event, creating a disincentive for claimants to commence unmeritorious claims given their exposure to the defendant’s legal costs if the claim ultimately fails. This is also true (indeed, potentially even more so) if, as is … Read more

The cessation of the London Inter-bank Offered Rate (LIBOR) at the end of 2021 has long been an issue vexing the global financial services industry given the scale and geographic spread of exposures to the affected benchmarks across the currencies and terms in which it is published. As we reach what Andrew Bailey, Governor of … Read more

In the first decision to consider the so-called “reflective loss” principle since the Supreme Court’s judgment in Sevilleja v Marex Financial Ltd [2020] UKSC 31 earlier this year, the High Court has emphasised the newly narrowed scope of the rule: Broadcasting Investment Group Ltd & Ors v Smith & Ors [2020] EWHC 2501 (Ch). As a … Read more

Herbert Smith Freehills LLP have published an article in Butterworths Journal of International Banking and Financial Law on the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)’s proposals for regulating climate-related disclosures and the litigation risks which may arise for issuers from such proposals. Climate change has been part of the political and regulatory discourse for years. However, it … Read more