If you have taken out a business loan and was advised to take out a product alongside the business loan that was supposed to protect you against the rise of bank loan interest rates, you may have a claim for business loan mis-selling. The FSA (The Financial Services Authority) has looked into the mis-selling of business interest rate swaps and considered that there may be a claim for compensation.
What are Interest Rate Swaps?
Interest Rate Swap loans are complex products, which banks mis-sold to businesses alongside loans to protect them against rises in interest rates, in anticipation of interest rates going up. However, these interest rate swap loans have caused severe problems for businesses when interest rates subsequently went down, and The Financial Services Authority(FSA) believes that banks did not do an adequate job of warning customers about the risks of Interest Rate Swap loans in the event of interest rates dropping. It was also discovered that in some cases borrowers had been pressurised to sign up or told that the interest swaps were obligatory or made them more likely to succeed in their applications.
The FSA’s review also found that when properly sold, in the right circumstances to the right customers, these products can protect customers against the risk of interest rate changes. However, when sold to ‘non-sophisticated’ customers, likely to be smaller business which wouldn’t necessarily have specific expertise and understanding in this area, some products may not have been appropriate for their needs.
If you are a small to medium size business that has been mis-sold a business loan with a swap interest rate product please contact us to see if you have a claim for compensation.
Most of the interest rate swap business loans were sold between 2005 and 2008 but investigations can takeplace as far back as 2001. The top four UK banks that have mis-sold interest rate swap loans to small businesses since 2001 are hereunder:-
Barclays Bank mis-sold business interest rate swap loans
RBS Bank mis-sold business interest rate swap loans
Lloyds mis-sold business interest rate swap loans
HSBC mis-sold business interest rate swap loans
For further information on these interest rate swap loans please contact us for free initial advice, for further reading visit business interest rate swap loan mis-selling. We possess an excellent track record of acting for Claimants in recovering compensation in many legal issues from contract disputes to financial mis-selling of insurance products and services.
Further Reading
