A group that was formed to gather claims against Royal Bank of Scotland over the conduct of its now defunct Global Restructuring Group has now turned its attention to Clydesdale Bank.
RGL Management said yesterday it intended to bring a claim against Clydesdale Bank, including claims relating to conduct under its trading name Yorkshire Bank, and its previous parent, National Australia Bank.
It said it was acting on behalf of businesses who purchased fixed rate tailored business loans (TBLs) between 2002 and 2012.
The group said: “RGL believes that in excess of 6,000 SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) have legitimate grounds to join this action.
“Many SMEs that took out TBLs later lost their businesses to insolvency.
RGL said it had received funding from Augusta Ventures for the litigation and recruited “a significant number” of SMEs to its group.
Chief executive James Hayward added: “Clydesdale’s conduct is actionable and we’ll be suing those involved in order to recover damages for those customers it harmed.
“Proceedings will probably be issued later this year, however, the exact timing is difficult to predict and will depend primarily on what gives us the greatest tactical advantage.”
The Clydesdale and Yorkshire banks are now part of CYBG, whose spokeswoman said: “This is a long-standing, historical matter which has been subject to significant scrutiny and which the bank has been working through with customers as part of a wide-ranging remediation programme in an open and transparent manner.”
