RBS 2014 Annual Report Download - page 103

101
RBS – Interim Results 2015
Notes
16. Litigation, investigations and reviews (continued)
Litigation
Unless we have indicated that we have established a provision with respect to the matters described below
or reached a settlement, or, although we have established a provision the matter is continuing which could
affect the overall level of provisions, the matters remain at a stage where there remains considerable
uncertainty around the final outcome of the claims and it is not practicable reliably to estimate the aggregate
potential impact on RBS, if any, which impact, individually or in the aggregate, may be material.
Shareholder litigation (US)
RBS and certain of its subsidiaries, together with certain current and former officers and directors were
named as defendants in a purported class action filed in the United States District Court for the Southern
District of New York involving holders of American Depositary Receipts (the ADR claims).
A consolidated amended complaint asserting claims under Sections 10 and 20 of the US Securities
Exchange Act of 1934 and Sections 11, 12 and 15 of the US Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the
“Securities Act”) was filed in November 2011 on behalf of all persons who purchased or otherwise acquired
the Group's American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) from issuance through 20 January 2009. In September
2012, the Court dismissed the ADR claims with prejudice. In August 2013, the Court denied the plaintiffs’
motions for reconsideration and for leave to re-plead their case. The plaintiffs appealed, and on 15 April
2015 the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed the Court’s dismissal of the plaintiffs’
claims. The plaintiffs requested that the appellate court reconsider its decision, but that request was denied
on 9 July 2015 and this matter is now closed.
Shareholder litigation (UK)
Between March and July 2013, claims were issued in the High Court of Justice of England and Wales by
sets of current and former shareholders, against RBS (and in one of those claims, also against certain
former individual officers and directors) alleging that untrue and misleading statements and/or improper
omissions, in breach of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, were made in connection with the
rights issue announced by RBS on 22 April 2008. In July 2013 these and other similar threatened claims
were consolidated by the Court via a Group Litigation Order. RBS’s defence to the claims was filed on 13
December 2013. Since then, further High Court claims have been issued against RBS under the Group
Litigation Order which is now closed to further claimants. The aggregate value of the shares subscribed for
at 200 pence per share by the claimant shareholders is approximately £4 billion although their damages
claims are not yet quantified. At a case management conference in December 2014 the judge ordered that a
trial of the preliminary issue of whether the rights issue prospectus contained untrue and misleading
statements and/or improper omissions commence in December 2016. In the event that the Court makes
such a finding, further trial(s) will be required to consider whether any such statements and/or omissions
caused loss and, if so, the quantum of that loss.