BANKING LAW
Banking Law: Defence of those affected by Preferential Shares/Subordinated Debt, Popular Bonds, Bankia Shares, Santander Securities, SFP and Floor Clauses.
At Practica Legal we recover your money without you having to incur any costs to start legal proceedings for the products we describe below:
BANKIA SHARES: In July 2011 BANKIA listed 55% of its capital on the Stock Exchange, attracting a total of de 3,300 million euros on the stock market. 60% of this listing was made by private investors without investment training and little or no knowledge about the stock market. In the advertising campaign launched at the time, the bank promised 7% profitability and that it would have about 410 million euros in profits at the end of 2011. Thousands of investors were attracted by this information. The Spanish Supreme Court has annulled the purchase of shares through deceit, recognising that there were “severe irregularities” in the leaflet on the public offer of shares of the company.
FLOOR CLAUSES: Affected customers signed their mortgage loans without being informed of the existence of this clause or of the economic consequences that the application of the clause would entail with regard to the amount of the loan payments. On 9 May 2013, the Spanish Supreme Court gave a sentence declaring null and void all floor clauses that did not comply with transparency criteria. After this decision, some banks have opted for eliminating them, while others continue to resist, obliging their customers to take legal action to eliminate the clause and the return of the money that was unduly paid.
PREFERENTIAL SHARES and SUBORDINATE DEBTS: The vast majority of preferential shares and subordinate debts have been marketed amongst retail clients with a contracting profile that has little to do with complex investment products, without suitable information about the risks of the product. We have proof that 99% of the rulings we have obtained are favourable to the affected parties, with sentences obtained in favour of the private client where the financial institution (Bankia, Caja Duero, Caja España, Banco CEISS, Catalunya Caixa, Bankinter, Eroski and Fagor, Novagalicia, Abanca and CAM, amongst others) is obliged to reimburse the sums invested, including the legal interests accrued since the date of sale.
POPULAR BONDS: In 2009, the Banco Popular marketed the Subordinated Bonds without giving information about the risks to retail clients, who did not have the profile required to subscribe to the bonds. The product was sold as fixed income (similar to a fixed term deposit) with a very attractive profit level, during the years of fixed return, but it was actually a hybrid product that becomes an equity investment when the bonds are changed to shares of the company.
SANTANDER SECURITIES: In 2007, to obtain financing to acquire all the shares of the Dutch bank ABN AMRO, this bank issued securities (Santander Securities). This product was placed in record time. In fact it was done so quickly, that the product was being marketed when the Information Leaflet had not yet been entered in the Registry of the Spanish National Stock Market Commission (CNMV). Thousands of affected clients accepted the securities as fixed income investments, with an expiration in 2012; when they would become shares in Banco Santander, at a price above that of the market, leading to losses of up to 55 % of the money invested by clients.
SFP (Structured Financial Products): Also known as Structured Deposits, they are hybrids that look like fixed income product but are in fact highly complex. They are sold as medium and long term deposits with an apparently high and attractive level of return, but this return and the recovery of the principal depend on the evolution of one or more derivatives or the quotation of an index or of a group of shares. In recent years, banking institutions have sold this type of product to a huge number of retail clients with little financial knowledge who do not fit into the profile of an investor for this type of product.