In an important recent decision, the Court of Appeal has confirmed the test for rectifying a contractual document on the grounds of common mistake: FSHC Group Holdings Ltd v GLAS Trust Corporation Ltd [2019] EWCA Civ 1361. In summary, the court confirmed that to establish a claim for rectification, a party must prove that the document failed … Read more
In a recent decision, the Commercial Court has upheld a financial institution’s decision to exercise its contractual right to close a customer’s accounts and terminate its relationship without notice, where the financial institution had a suspicion that its customer’s accounts were being used for money laundering purposes: N v The Royal Bank of Scotland plc … Read more
Applying a commercial approach to the fees payable under an engagement agreement, the Commercial Court recently decided in favour of the claimant investment bank in Macquarie Capital (Europe) Ltd v Nordsee Offshore MEG I GmbH [2019] EWHC 1655 (Comm). The engagement provided for the supply of financial advisory services including raising equity and debt finance … Read more
On a recent summary judgment application, the High Court has given effect to an anti set-off clause on standard Loan Market Association (“LMA“) terms to prevent the defendant from relying on equitable set-off, as a defence to claims to recover interest and principal under a loan agreement: AMC III Purple B.V. v Amethyst Radiotherapy Limited … Read more
The Commercial Court has granted summary judgment in favour of a bank defending a claim brought by a foreign exchange (“FX“) broker seeking to recover losses it suffered when the Swiss franc was de-pegged from the euro in 2015: CFH Clearing Limited v MLI [2019] EWHC 963 (Comm). The decision represents a robust approach by … Read more
The Court of Appeal has upheld the High Court’s decision that ‘negative interest’ is not payable by a Transferor of cash collateral under the standard form ISDA 1995 Credit Support Annex (“CSA“): The State of the Netherlands v Deutsche Bank AG [2019] EWCA Civ 771. The Court of Appeal’s confirmation of this point is useful, because the … Read more
The High Court has recently considered the contractual interpretation of documentation in a collateralised loan obligation (“CLO“) transaction: Deutsche Trustee Company Ltd v Duchess VI CLO B.V. & Ors [2019] EWHC 778 (Ch). Applying established principles of contractual interpretation, the court held that an incentive fee was not payable to the collateral manager of the CLO, following the … Read more
The Court of Appeal has held that a letter of instruction (“LOI“) between a bank and its customer conferred a benefit on third party investors. The third party investors (who were not customers of the bank) were held to be part of a sufficiently identified class in the LOI for the purpose of s.1(3) of the Contracts (Rights … Read more
