Inquesta’s swap claims hit £50m
FORENSIC accountancy firm Inquesta has reported a surge in both its caseload and value of claims for businesses claiming to have been mis-sold interest rate swap products.
In the last four months the value of the Manchester practice’s claims have soared from £12.3m to £50.5m while the volume of consequential losses cases has risen from 50 to 67 in the last four months.
Such growth has led to the recruitment of two additional members of staff and a consultant.
Recent cases include claims by care homes, children’s nurseries, hotel and nightclub operators and property developers. The claims range in value from £250,000 to £20m.
The businesses are claiming for losses they believe they incurred as a direct result of having to make payments on mis-sold interest rate swaps, or to fund break penalties.
Inquesta director Rob Miller said: “We’ve seen a number of instances where other group or related companies have gone into liquidation, or projects that were intended to happen could not, directly as a result of the swap payments. We’ve seen significant growth over a short period of time, and anticipate this will increase further.”
Mr Miller said the banks are defending claims robustly – some of Inquesta’s clients have already submitted a claim themselves and had it rejected.
“The banks have set the burden of proof very high. There is a real need to provide documentary evidence to support the claims. Without this, most will fail at the first hurdle.
“We expect a long, hard fight, but are confident that justice will prevail and that the people affected by the scandal will be put back into the position they would have been in but for the swap.”
Britain’s largest banks have so far paid out £1.2bn in redress, just a third of the £3.75bn set aside to deal with the issue. Only 2,060 victims of mis-selling have so far made consequential loss claims. The banks have paid out an average of just £1,800 to 400 successful claimants.
