Expertise

This edition of Expertise presents articles on two topics which should be of interest to many law firms, given their wide-ranging ramifications.

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The collapse of Greensill Capital has raised many questions over its approach to supply chain financing and its exposures to the group of companies controlled by Mr Sanjeev Gupta. The Financial Times reported earlier this week that an Italian bank, Milan-based Aigis Banca, had collapsed because of its exposure to Greensill Capital and GFG Alliance.

Greensill Capital’s problems have also led to a focus on the role of Crédit Suisse, which provided large amounts of funding through a number of supply chain funds. 4,000 investors are reported to be facing significant losses after investing in these funds and there has been discussion of class action suits against the bank. (Crédit Suisse has attracted further commentary over its exposures to a second high profile insolvency, that of the Archegos Capital family office.)

Our expert associate Benedict Roth comments on the issues raised by the Greensill collapse. Benedict was Head of Global Funds Credit Risk Analytics for 5 years at HSBC before spending 8 years with the Bank of England in a number of supervisory roles, giving him an unusual dual perspective both as a practitioner and as a regulator.

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In our second article, our Director - Insurance Tim Dowlen returns to a subject which we discussed a year ago.

Tim discusses the practical consequences of January’s Supreme Court ruling in response to the test case brought by the UK Financial Conduct Authority that insurers should pay small businesses for many of their Business Interruption claims resulting from the COVID-19 lockdowns.

 

Managing Director,

GBRW Expert Witness
May 2021