BCCI liquidators win new appeal

LIQUIDATORS FOR the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) said yesterday they had been granted leave to appeal to the House of Lords after creditors lost an initial appeal against the Bank of England last week over claims that the central bank wrongfully granted BCCI a licence and did not withdraw it quickly enough.

The appeal is likely to be heard by five law lords in the House of Lords by the middle of next year, the joint liquidators Deloitte & Touche said in a statement. The case stems from the claims of 6,000 British depositors seeking compensation worth pounds 600m plus interest from the Bank of England.

BCCI collapsed and was closed by banking regulators in 1991 with debts of $12bn in what was the biggest fraud in banking history. It left some 150,000 depositors worldwide scrambling to recover lost money. Creditors have so far been returned dividends of 46 per cent, or over $4bn.