London—On 7 March 2025 the High Court dismissed a judicial review claim brought by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Fair Business Banking (APPG) against the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The case was listed in The Lawyer's Top 20 cases for 2024.

The claim related to the FCA's agreement with nine banks, in 2012-2013, to a redress scheme covering the banks' sales of Interest Rate Hedging Products from 2001-2011. The redress scheme resulted in the banks paying over £2bn of redress to customers.

The decision under challenge was the FCA's decision in 2021 not to seek to compel the banks to provide further redress, following an independent review into the redress scheme. The reviewer, John Swift KC, criticised the scope of the scheme, whereby only some customers classified as Private Customers / Retail Clients under the FCA’s rules were covered.

In its response to the review the FCA accepted most of Mr Swift's findings and recommendations, however it did not accept the scope criticisms. The APPG alleged that the FCA failed to secure an appropriate degree of protection for consumers in accordance with its statutory consumer protection objective.

The Court held that: (i) the FCA’s decision not to seek to require banks to provide redress to those excluded from the scheme, and its conclusion that the scope of the scheme had been appropriate notwithstanding the criticisms made by the reviewer, was not irrational; and (ii) that the FCA had not acted unfairly in not consulting on the decision.

Dentons acted for the FCA. The Dentons team was led by Katharine Harle, with support from Antonia Leggat, Michael Calladine and Ellen Blakeney.

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