RBS Wins Fight With Developer Over Bank’s Small-Business Unit

(Bloomberg) -- Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc won its legal fight against a property developer who said the lender used unlawful threats to pressure him to transfer his assets to a controversial subsidiary.

Oliver Morley lost his suit against the bank over a 2006 deal for the repayment of a 75 million-pound ($98.2 million) loan. The court battle centered around the bank’s controversial small-business lending unit and the power wielded by an arm of the U.K. government’s treasury.

”Neither intimidation nor economic duress is made out,” Judge Timothy Kerr said in his ruling.

RBS’s Global Restructuring Group was previously investigated by regulators over claims that many of its small-business customers were pushed into difficulty to bolster the lender’s earnings.

A July 2018 report found that “systematic” mistreatment of borrowers took place, with the unit often prioritizing revenue generation over its clients’ long-term interests.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jonathan Browning in London at jbrowning9@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Anthony Aarons at aaarons@bloomberg.net, Peter Chapman

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