Banking & Finance

Fountain Court is known for being at the forefront of banking and financial disputes, including retail and investment banking.

It is one of our core specialities with most of our members having significant experience in some of the most sizeable and ground-breaking cases in this area, acting for banks, clients, investment funds and regulators.

The set has a reputation for large-scale, test-case litigation involving some of the world’s leading financial institutions. For example, several members of chambers figured prominently for the Bank of England in the celebrated Three Rivers litigation, which produced numerous appeals to the Court of Appeal and House of Lords; all the main retail banks were represented by members of Fountain Court in the Bank Charges litigation (the test case brought by the OFT on unauthorised overdraft charges which was finally resolved in favour of the banks in the House of Lords – Office of Fair Trading v Abbey National & Others); and many members of Chambers were instructed by RBS in the RBS Rights Issue litigation.

Our members are unique amongst leading commercial sets in that our expertise spans both the civil and criminal sectors, including for example representing Barclays in connection with its 2008 capital raise from the state of Qatar which led to significant criminal and civil proceedings. We are regularly instructed in complex and often cross-border frauds, money laundering, sanctions and bribery investigations. Members have significant experience of banking regulation and have acted for and against the FCA and PRA and foreign regulators in numerous high-profile investigations and inquiries.

Members have also advised the central banks of a number of countries including the Bank of England, the Deutsche Bundesbank, the Central Bank of Argentina, the Bank of Namibia and the Central Bank of Trinidad & Tobago.

Our work includes cases relating to:

• Banks, including retail and investment banks
• Professional negligence, including in relation to:
  • Mis-selling of products such as of interest rate swaps
  • Rate manipulation such as LIBOR or FOREX
  • Misrepresentation or misfeasance
• Fraud, including money laundering and disputes under the Proceeds of Crime Act (‘POCA’)
• Commercial disputes in a banking context
• Regulatory issues, including sanctions and bribery investigations
• Tax