After 10 years there are still those who do not lose hope. And it's good. The World Bank court upheld the petition of the Italians seeking compensation for losses of more than one billion euros due to Argentina's default in 2001. The thousands of creditors of Argentine government bonds had rejected a swap proposal by the House in 2005 Rosada and had filed a lawsuit with the International Center for Settlement of Investmen Disputes (ICSID) of the World Bank, denouncing the violation of the Italy-Argentina bilateral treaty on investments. The court ruled on Aug. 4 to have jurisdiction over the arbitration, the first of its kind in terms of the number of people involved.
The request was registered in February 2007 and the slow process has caused many people to lose their way. If around 180 small investors had left, claiming 4.500 million dollars, to bring their requests to ICSID, two-thirds abandoned the legal route and accepted the restructuring offer proposed by Argentina.
But there is still a pending lawsuit in New York that Italian bondholders could reactivate if they disagree with the ICSID court settlement. Nicola Stock, head of the perseverers, said that if they were to win the case, it would be less difficult to obtain a freeze of Argentine assets abroad, since the court can implement its decisions in more than 140 member countries.
Through swaps proposed in 2005 and 2010, Argentina restructured 92% of its debt.
The authorities of the South American country have not yet released comments.
Source: Reuters
