BCCI's Manx creditors want regulator sued

BANK of Credit and Commerce International's creditors on the Isle of Man want the fraud-ridden bank's liquidators to sue the Isle of Man Financial Supervision Commission over its role as regulator of BCCI. The call follows the liquidators' decision, announced on Monday, to sue the Bank of England.

It also emerged yesterday that the joint plaintiffs suing the Bank are three local authorities and an advisory centre that had millions deposited with BCCI when it was shut down in July 1991.

Yesterday the Manx-based creditors, who claim a total of dollars 99m, complained to liquidators at Touche Ross that the Isle of Man commission was using its position as regulator of banks on the island to take over their voting rights in the election of a BCCI creditors' committee on Thursday.

They argue that the commission should not be allowed to take over their rights as the liquidators might be forced to take legal action for compensation against it.

The liquidators' writ issued on Monday against the Bank of England has four joint plaintiffs - Harlow Town Council, the Metropolitan Borough of Bury, the Manchester Pakistani Welfare and Information Centre and Three Rivers District Council, Rickmansworth. Local councils lost an estimated total of pounds 60m in the BCCI collapse. Brian Smallridge, Bury's director of finance, said he expected other councils to join the legal action against the Bank.