The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom handed down its 48 page decision on 21 December 2022, finding in summary that a significant part of the loss suffered by SIB cannot be claimed from HSBC.

The case was heard on 19 January 2022 before a panel of five Supreme Court Justices and who considered the issue of whether or not SIB suffered any loss as a result of HSBC’s actions.  This appeal followed the Court of Appeal’s decision that SIB did not suffer any loss as a result of HSBC’s actions because although SIB had lost around £118m in cash from SIB’s HSBC accounts the majority of the money paid away reduced SIB’s liabilities to certificate of deposit holders.  We appealed the decision of the Court of Appeal because we believed that there were good arguments to be made that SIB did suffer a loss because of HSBC’s actions. 

The issue on appeal gave rise to detailed consideration of technical legal points and interpretation of the meaning of prior case law on this issue.  Lord Sales disagreed with his four fellow Justices and issued a dissenting decision in which his view was that SIB did suffer a loss as a result of the payments out of SIB’s bank accounts at HSBC.  However, because Lord Sales’ four fellow Justices viewed matters differently SIB’s appeal was dismissed.

We are disappointed with the result, but are continuing to assess recovery options against HSBC.  

See link to the full decision here.