Assistance with disputes for financial institutions

Litigation assistance for financial institutions

Client needs

  • Understand the specific issues involved in the financial dispute, particularly those relating to financial and regulatory (AMF, ACPR, ECB etc.) matters
  • Present the associated technical issues in an informative and understandable way
  • Develop a robust argument to support the client's strategy (as claimant or defendant)
  • Simulate and model appropriate financial scenarios and draw the relevant conclusions regarding the harm and its quantum (as claimant or defendant)

Our strengths

  • Acknowledged expertise (long track record, regular assignments with various financial institutions)
  • Assignments as expert witnesses (one partner acts as an expert witness in the Paris Appeal Court and is approved by the Cour de Cassation), including in relation to domestic and international arbitration
  • Ability to work with the client and its advisors in multi-discipline teams (operational, legal, financial)
  • Highly experienced and technically skilled teams featuring people with diverse profiles, including some who used to work in the banking industry
  • Ability to make complex issues understandable (derivatives, structured financing, toxic assets etc.)

Solutions / services

  • We do work relating to out-of-court settlements, disputes, conciliation/mediation and AMF enquiries, at the request of parties to a dispute.

Approach / methodology

  • In-depth review of the context for the litigation
  • Use of methods geared to the issue at hand (loss, liability, cause, liability, lost income, opportunity loss)
  • Adoption of the optimal approach, factoring in simulations and modelling of the financial products involved
  • Definition and application of hypothetical scenarios to assess harm
  • Determination of the most effective reporting format (memo to advisors, Finexsi report, etc.)

Sample assignments

  • Assistance to a financial institution accused of defamation with respect to an issuer in the luxury goods sector: Analysis of the facts and putting the opinions of the financial institution's analyst into perspective in view of the issuer's financial communication and analysis carried out by other analysts; Analysis of the main changes in the issuer's results in the period under consideration; Analysis of the issuer's main rival, its share price movements and its share ownership structure
  • Assistance to a bank being sued by a local authority in relation to the granting of a loan deemed "toxic": Analysis of the loan contracts and the local authority's original objectives; review of transactions to date and comparison with alternative financing solutions; modelling of the relevant loan and simulation of its future effects
  • Assistance to a bank to analyse the consequences of terminating loans granted to a company, secured by securities in listed companies: Analysis of loan contracts and security provided; Analysis of the borrower's financial position in the relevant period; Simulation of alternative scenarios taking into account changes in the borrower's financial position and in the prices of shares provided as security; Quantification of compensation to be paid
  • Assistance to a financial institution as part of an AMF enquiry relating to the terms of a bond issue: Analysis of procedures followed and comparison with regulatory obligations; Assessment of how "sensitive" (within the meaning of the AMF's general regulation) the information in the bank's possession was, given the specific features of the issue

Our

business

area