Jess Harwood, FT Adviser |
A High Court judge has ordered Barclays Bank to hand over 42 names to Guardian Care Homes as part of its disclosure in the first British damages claim over alleged Libor manipulation.
After a two-day court hearing, Mr Justice Flaux said Barclays must give Guardian Care Homes the information on 42 individuals, said to be Libor traders and employees that made submissions on Libor.
He also ordered disclosure of their email communications, as well as transcripts of phone conversations that refer to Libor, minutes of board meetings and documents from the bank’s treasury committee during a lengthy case management conference at London’s High Court.
The court heard that a trial of the complex action may not take place until January 2014.
The judge declined Barclays’ request to make a confidentiality order in respect of the 42 names, but gave the individuals and any regulatory bodies still investigating the allegations of Libor manipulation 14 days in which to make their own application for confidentiality.
Following findings by regulators in both the UK and US of misconduct and wrongdoing against Barclays in relation to manipulation of Libor, the group claims Barclays mis-sold it £70m in interest rate swaps to refinance two loans in 2007.
It claims it was induced to enter into the transactions by false implied representations that Barclays had not attempted to manipulate Libor.