BCCI liquidators withdraw €1.47bn lawsuit against Bank of England

A £1 BILLION (€1.47bn) lawsuit launched against the Bank of England more than 12 years ago over its alleged failure to clamp down on the fraudulent activities of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) collapsed in the High Court yesterday.

The liquidators of BCCI withdrew the claim, which had been brought on behalf of 6,500 mostly British depositors who lost out when the rogue bank went bust in 1991 with debts of £10 billion (€14.69bn).

Mr Justice Tomlinson, who began the trial of the action nearly 18 months ago, was told by the Bank of England’s lawyers that the allegations were “nothing short of scandalous” and the collapse of the “utterly hopeless” case would cost many tens of millions of pounds in legal fees. The liquidators, accountants Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, said the Chancellor of the High Court, Andrew Morritt, had given a judgement yesterday in which he held it was no longer in the best interests of creditors to continue the litigation.