ZURICH – Switzerland’s Federal Administrative Court has received 230 claims against the country’s financial regulator Finma after it wrote off the value of Credit Suisse’s AT1 bonds, the court said on Tuesday.
The claims related to 2,500 individual parties, a court spokesman told Reuters.
The court in the north-eastern Swiss city of St Gallen, declined to say whether the time limit for filing further claims had expired or the amount of compensation claimed.
The bond holders have sued Finma after their investments were wiped out during March’s government-orchestrated rescue of Credit Suisse.
Under the takeover deal, holders of Credit Suisse AT1 bonds will get nothing, while shareholders, who usually rank below bondholders in compensation terms, will receive $3.23 billion.
Law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, which is representing the bondholders, is seeking redress for clients whose assets it said had been expropriated during Credit Suisse’s takeover by bigger rival UBS.
Finma has defended its decision to impose steep losses on some of Credit Suisse bondholders, saying the decision was legally watertight. The government has also defended the decision.
Bondholders in Singapore are also gearing up for a legal fight, with at least 100 investors joining a class action earlier this month to recover about $100 million in losses. This comes on top of other smaller groups of investors in Singapore also seeking redress over the wipeout of their Credit Suisse AT1 bonds.
The class action is said to focus on the free trade agreement signed in 2003 between Singapore and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), which includes the Swiss state. REUTERS
- With additional information from The Straits Times
