Articles by author
Payments by mistake: when will the discharge of an existing debt be a defence to a claim for repayment?
On 11 August 2020, Citibank made a payment of US$900m to the lenders under a syndicated loan agreement, in what the US court later described as “one of the biggest blunders in banking history”. When Citibank sued for the return of the money, the US court held that it was not entitled to repayment because the payments discharged an existing debt and the recipients had no notice of the mistake. That decision, on 16 February 2021, has understandably caused consternation among bankers. One report described the decision as “eye-watering” and one that “will strike terror into earnest hearts in the global trust and agency community”. London, of course, is another global financial hub and the industry might be equally interested to know how this dispute might have been determined as a matter of English law. This article addresses that question.
1 JUL 2021Does the restoration of Crown preference mean that guarantors can get off the hook?
When the economic landscape changes, people often look to wriggle out of their financial commitments. Just such a change occurred in 2020, when HMRC’s status as a preferential creditor of insolvent companies was restored.
30 APR 2024Claiming subrogation where a debt owed by a third party is discharged by a payment made by mistake
In this article Matthew Parker KC considers the remedy of subrogation where money is provided by mistake. The context is Citibank’s mistaken US$500m payment to lenders which has now, on appeal, been held not to have discharged Revlon’s debt. This follows Matthew’s earlier article in the July/August 2021 edition, ‘Payments by mistake: when will the discharge of an existing debt be a defence to a claim for repayment’ (2021) 7 JIBFL 457.
1 DEC 2022
