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The FSA yesterday confirmed that some of the largest banks in the country could be facing significant claims in relation to the latest mis-selling scandal to hit the UK.

With banks already preparing to pay out more than £10billion as redress to victims of Payment Protection Insurance (‘PPI’) mis-selling, they won’t be overjoyed to hear that the FSA believes a significant proportion of the 173 cases they have reviewed will result in more compensation payments.

In the summer of 2012, the FSA discovered “serious failings” with regards to the selling of these types of financial instruments and speculation suggests that up to 40,000 interest rate swaps and similar products have been mis-sold to commercial customers over the past decade.

Included in the review were the sales of swaps by Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, RBS together with the Clydesdale Bank, the Co-Operative Bank and Santander UK. The UK’s “big four” (Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds and RBS) have apparently agreed to start reviewing cases internally with a view to providing customers with compensation. It is suggested that the cost of compensating these customers could be as high as £1.5billion.

With the backdrop of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders (‘LASPO’) Act, likely to come into force on 1st April 2013, clients must be aware that in order to obtain After the Event (‘ATE’) insurance with a recoverable premium, their solicitors must act now. The ATE insurance market is starting to become inundated with applications for cover and this will only worsen as we approach the April deadline. Moreover, the appetite for insuring these types of cases is fairly small; solicitors need to know which markets have exeperience in this area before they embark upon a search of the market. Fortunately, TheJudge has a well-established pool of markets to approach.

Contact us to discuss the options further or download a proposal form to make an application.

For those clients who also require cash-flow assistance in bringing these claims, TheJudge has secured third party litigation funding solutions on a portfolio basis. Contact us for more information.