The court of Milan sentenced Bnl to pay around 8,2 million euros in compensation, to be revalued and with interest, to a company, the Italian branch of a French multinational operating in the real estate sector, in relation to the stipulation of an interest rate contract swap. The bank led by Andrea Munari will also have to pay the costs of the proceedings.
The lawsuit, initiated in 2013, concerns an event in 2007, when the company entered into a loan agreement with Westdeutsche Landesbank for around 38 million euro, aimed at building a shopping center and containing the contractual obligation of hedging.
To hedge the risk deriving from the possible increase in the floating rate envisaged by the loan, another company, also belonging to the same group, entered into a Swap derivative contract with BNL for hedging purposes. However, according to the judgment of the Court of Milan
there is a "lack of proof of the ex ante suitability of the contract to perform the - at least prevalent - function of required coverage" and this "burdens on BNL".
Furthermore, according to the judge, "a purpose" of the IRS was mainly speculative with respect to the trend in the interest rate" and from this derives the affirmation of the bank's responsibility for the damages suffered by the real estate group company. Furthermore, the contract would have had hidden costs of around 500 thousand euros.
