Angry British business customers drag NAB to the courtroom
London | England’s high court has begun hearing a case brought by four small business owners, who say National Australia Bank and its former British unit Clydesdale & Yorkshire Bank, now known as ASX-listed Virgin Money, crippled them financially through allegedly mis-selling fixed-rate business loans.
The 11-week trial, in which hundreds of millions of dollars could be at stake, began on Monday.
Clydesdale Bank, now Virgin Money, is accused of mis-selling hundreds of business loans when owned by NAB. Bloomberg
Litigation funder RGL Group, run by Australian-born investment banker James Hayward, is backing the case.
RGL has amassed a group of 900 small and medium enterprises who took out CYBG’s “tailored business loans” (TBLs) between 2005 and 2012. They want to follow in the first four claimants’ footsteps, potentially launching a class action.
NAB and Virgin Money have both denied the claims in full, and will this week start mounting their defence against the four businesses bringing the test case.
RGL has been working on the case for more than five years. It lodged this first suit with the high court in 2019, while continuing to recruit more claimants and drum up investors.
“It has taken many years to arrive at the trial of this group litigation,” Mr Hayward said in a statement on the first morning of the trial.
“The funding and insurance arrangements that have allowed the RGL Group to reach the steps of the court remain in place, and the confidence of the claimants’ legal team in the merits of the claims has not wavered.”
Virgin Money’s costs for the case have been estimated at £13.6 million ($26 million) in total, with the claimants likely not far behind. NAB’s costs are not known.
NAB has declined to comment while
Read more on afr.com
