In this article, Andrew Bowen QC looks at Property Alliance Group Ltd v Royal Bank of Scotland Plc [2018] 1 W.L.R. 3529, the latest Court of Appeal decision on the scope of the legal duties for economic loss owed by financial institutions towards commercial clients who enter into interest rate swaps. The relationship between bank and customer is ordinarily that of debtor and creditor, with no obligation to advise and no common law or fiduciary duties of care. “Assumption of responsibility” and a duty to explain fully has been the route that claimants have taken to try to establish a duty of care, but Property Alliance Group Ltd provides another illustration of the uphill struggle such claims have faced.

This article was first published in Greens Business Law Bulletin, Issue 159 (April 2019) and on Westlaw. It is reproduced here with the kind permission of Thomson Reuters.