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banking giant HSBC It revealed it will set aside US$1.1 billion (£826 million) following a court ruling relating to a long-running lawsuit brought by investors who lost money in Bernard Madoff’s investment fraud.
The British lender, which reports third-quarter results on Tuesday, said the provision came after it lost part of an appeal luxembourg Court’s decision last Friday.
It follows a case brought by Herald Fund SPC, which sued HSBC Securities Services Luxembourg (HSSL) in 2009, claiming losses from cash and securities linked to Madoff. ponzi schemeWhich was one of the biggest financial scams in history.
Last week, the Luxembourg Court of Cassation rejected HSSL’s appeal on Herald’s securities restitution claim, but upheld its appeal in relation to the cash restitution claim.
HSSL is now planning to file a second appeal before the Luxembourg Court of Appeal to contest the amount to be paid.
shares HSBC fell as much as 2% in morning trading on Monday.
Mr Madoff, who died in prison in 2021, admitted defrauding thousands of investors out of about US$65 billion (£48.8 billion) in 2009.
HSBC said the provision would be factored into its third-quarter results and would impact its so-called common equity tier one capital ratio, a key measure of financial strength for banks, although it cautioned that the final financial impact remains uncertain due to the complexity of the case and the ongoing appeals process.
The UK-headquartered group said in its interim results in July that it “provided custody, administration and similar services to a number of funds incorporated outside the US whose assets were invested with Madoff Securities”.
It added that various HSBC companies were named as defendants in lawsuits arising from the Madoff fraud scandal.
Herald Fund SPC is a European fund that invested money in the Madoff investment fund, for which HSBC’s Luxembourg securities arm, HSSL, was the custodian.
HSBC said in July results that Herald, which is in liquidation, was seeking compensation of US$2.5 billion (£1.9 billion) of securities and cash and interest, or US$5.6 billion (£4.2 billion) of losses and interest.
The blow is the latest blow to its financial strength after HSBC last month unveiled plans for a US$13.6 billion (£10.2 billion) deal to take its troubled Hong Kong-listed business Hang Seng Bank private, which it said would wipe out its normal equity tier one capital ratio.
HSBC also said it would suspend share buybacks for the next three quarters due to the Hang Seng Bank acquisition to boost cash reserves needed for the deal.
The shares fell after the deal was announced.
It is the latest blow for HSBC, which in July disclosed a US$2.1 billion (£1.6 billion) charge to cover losses related to its stake in China’s Bank of Communications, as well as costs associated with exiting its businesses in Canada and Argentina.
Most analysts expect the banking group to post a pre-tax profit of US$7.7bn (£5.8bn) for the third quarter between July and September when it publishes its latest financial results on Tuesday.
This marks a decline from the US$8.5 billion (£6.4 billion) the bank earned in the same period last year.
Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said, “It’s testament to the scale of the bank that the provision of over US$1 billion is a relatively minor irritation rather than a disaster”.
“This latest blow, however, follows a poor decision to put the buyback on hold as HSBC is pumping in cash to buy out minority investors in Hong Kong lender Hang Seng Bank, putting the chief executive under a bit of pressure,” he said.