All Square Launches Yorkshire Business Claim
The new All Square venture, Yorkshire Business Claim, (www.ybclaim.co.uk) has been created solely to help business bank customers of Yorkshire Bank to secure redress for miss-sold ‘hedging’ products including Tailored Business Loans (TBLs) and freestanding interest rate hedging products, such as swaps, caps and collars.
Based in the centre of Leeds, Yorkshire Business Claim is focussed on supporting businesses throughout Yorkshire and the North as these were the key regions targeted by Yorkshire Bank when they sold these complex products.
Daniel Hall, Managing Director at Yorkshire Business Claim explains:
Widespread Sale of Tailored Business Loans
“Between 2001 and 2012, Yorkshire Bank sold over 11 000 Tailored Business Loans to a variety of businesses who could ill-afford them. It was often the case that businesses didn’t have a proper understanding of what they were getting into or the costs of getting out of them.
Complexities and Risks of TBL Products
“Tailored Business Loans were often complex, long-term structured loans with significant termination or break clauses included in them which were not always properly explained during the sales process of these products. Many thousands of businesses in Yorkshire and the North were actively marketed Tailored Business Loans by Yorkshire Bank so its s big problem for the region. The Treasury Select Committee has received evidence from numerous customers who tried to extricate themselves from a TBL, incurring break costs of between £12 000 to a staggering £1.42m.”
Lack of Regulatory Protection for TBLs
Unlike free standing hedging products, the majority of Tailored Business Loans are not part of a current regulatory scheme which has been set up to award businesses compensation if the hedging product was miss-sold. However, that should not stop the business seeking redress if they believe they have been miss-sold them.
Mr Hall adds, “We are acting for a number of businesses with TBLs who come to us as leading regional experts in this area. Being Yorkshire based, we understand many of the issues local businesses have with these products”.
