A CLASS action against Clydesdale Bank – now part of Virgin Money – and its former owner National Australia Bank (NAB) has grown to more than 1300 claims representing 823 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
RGM Management announced yesterday that a further 430 claims on behalf of 266 SMEs had been filed in the Chancery Division of the High Court, building on previous submissions from May 2019 and last October.
The claims arise from fixed interest rate loans, or tailored business loans (TBLs) sold to business customers between 2001 and 2012.
READ MORE: 'Institutional dishonesty': Clydesdale bank court action enters final phase
Allegations against Clydesdale and NAB include claims of deceit, misrepresentation and breach of contract in relation to the TBLs.
It is alleged the banks falsely and unlawfully demanded break costs from borrowers who sought to terminate fixed rate business loans early, as well as deliberately inflating the fixed interest rate payable without first informing customers.
As a result, RGL said all fixed rate TBL borrowers allegedly have unknowingly and unnecessarily paid hundreds of millions of pounds of additional costs and interest, all of which went towards the banks’ profits.
A second case management conference (CMC), before Justice Zacaroli, has been scheduled for next month.
RGL is continuing to process and verify additional claims from across Scotland England and Wales, and said it intended to issue further proceedings in the coming months. In Scotland, it has instructed Cat MacLean, partner and head of dispute resolution, of legal firm MBM Commercial LLP.
James Hayward, CEO of RGL Management, said: “With this significant new wave of claims, the largest to date, we remain supremely confident in the strength of our case.
“There is irrefutable evidence which proves the bank’s unlawful treatment of its fixed rate loan customers and we are well on the way to securing them the compensation they deserve, which is in the hundreds of millions of pounds. There remain thousands of former Clydesdale and Yorkshire Bank business loan customers who are yet to claim.
“With another High Court hearing scheduled next month, we are making one last push in our book building efforts to reach anybody who is yet to join.”
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