The chief executive from HSBC has been accused of pressuring staff at the bank to give the property company where his daughter worked a £40million loan.
Noel Quinn, Managing Director of FTSE 100 lendersand senior executives at HSBC are said to have stepped in in 2014 to provide ailing homebuilder Mar City with a £40million loan facility and handed the couple behind the company a £10million personal loan.
The claims are being made in a lawsuit brought by Tony and Maggie Ryan, former controlling shareholders of Mar City.
According to the lawsuit, Mr Quinn was a “longtime personal” friend of Mr and Mrs Ryan. It is alleged that Mr Quinn encouraged his friends to take out the loan. HSBC is accused of effectively taking control of the company with the loans and driving it into bankruptcy.
Mar City, which was listed on London’s Junior Aim market, eventually collapsed under administration in 2016.
HSBC denies all allegations, with lawyers for the bank saying the allegations made in the lawsuit are “selective, inaccurate and incomplete”. They added that the inaccuracies in the couple’s evidence “are too numerous for HSBC to address each one.”
Lawyers for the bank said Mr and Mrs Ryan had no explanation for how Mar City could have been saved or how HSBC prioritized its own interests over the property company.
Bridget Lucas, a solicitor for the bank, said at a High Court hearing on Wednesday that the couple “make no representations as to what assets were allegedly confiscated by MCPLC”.
Mr Quinn, who was then head of HSBC’s Asia Pacific Bank, also denies telling Mr Ryan that the bank’s credit management department was “wild west”.
Regardless of investor pressure spin off HSBC’s booming Asia business from its stagnant western operations continues to rise.
Ken Lui, an investor who heads a group campaigning for a spin-off of the Asian business, called an informal shareholder meeting in Hong Kong next week to advocate a split.
The lobbying will take place ahead of the Bank’s annual meeting in Birmingham in May.
HSBC has been forced, at Mr Lui’s request, to give shareholders a vote on conducting a strategic overhaul of the business, including the spin-off of the Asian arm.
A spokesman for HSBC was asked for comment.
Source : finance.yahoo.com