Financial Services Disputes

Business financial services disputes

A dispute with a bank, lender, insurer or financial adviser can place considerable pressure on your business.

Alongside the immediate financial loss, the dispute may affect your cash flow, commercial relationships, ability to secure funding and wider reputation.

Our solicitors advise businesses, directors and financial professionals involved in complex financial services disputes. We can help you understand your legal position, protect your commercial interests and pursue a practical resolution.

Speak to our business disputes team

Advice for businesses facing financial loss

Financial products and professional advice can be complicated. In some cases, the full extent of a problem may not become apparent until a business has already suffered substantial loss.

We advise businesses that have experienced loss because of:

Negligent financial or investment advice
Mis-sold financial products
Inappropriate lending arrangements
Breaches of contract by banks or financial providers
Disputed loan or funding terms
Unfair treatment by financial institutions
Insurance coverage and payment disputes
Negligence by accountants, brokers or other financial professionals
Unauthorised transactions or failures in financial controls

We will review the advice, agreements and communications involved before explaining the options available to your business.

This may include negotiation, mediation, a formal complaint, regulatory redress or court proceedings.

Contact our solicitors about a business financial services dispute

Defending financial services professionals and firms

We also represent financial advisers, brokers and other professionals facing claims relating to the services or advice they have provided.

An allegation of negligence or misconduct can threaten your finances, professional reputation and relationships with clients, insurers and regulators.

Our solicitors can help you assess the strength of the allegations, prepare a clear response and defend your position. Where appropriate, we can also work with your professional indemnity insurer and other advisers.

Have you been the victim of financial fraud?

If you would like to speak with a legal expert about financial fraud and/or to the actions of an insurer, bank, brokerage, building society or other professional service provider, we can help.

Our solicitors are experts at representing victims of fraud and can assit you with:

Authorised push payment scams

Authorised push payment scams happen when a fraudster persuades you to send money from your own bank account to an account they control. This could involve impersonating your bank, a solicitor, HMRC, a supplier or even someone you know. The payment is “authorised” because you made it yourself, but it may still have been made as a result of deception, pressure or false information.

If you have lost money this way, you may have rights to reimbursement depending on the circumstances, the type of payment and whether the bank complied with its obligations. Current rules can require payment service providers to reimburse eligible victims of APP fraud, subject to limits and exceptions.

For legal advice for this type of fraud, please get in touch.

Authorised pull payment fraud

Authorised pull payment fraud usually involves money being taken from your account through a payment method you have approved or allowed, such as a Direct Debit, standing authority, recurring card payment or other payment instruction. Unlike push payment fraud, where you actively send the money, a pull payment allows another party to collect money from your account. If you were misled into giving authority, did not understand what you were agreeing to or the payments taken went beyond what you authorised, we can help review the agreement, the payment authority, the conduct of the recipient and whether the bank, lender or service provider should have acted differently.

Please speak to our team for more information.

Undisclosed commission arrangements

Undisclosed commission arrangements occur where a broker, intermediary or dealer receives commission from a lender or provider but does not properly tell the customer. This can be an issue where the commission created a conflict of interest, affected the cost of borrowing or meant the customer was not given clear information before entering into the agreement.

These have been especially relevant in motor finance, where the Financial Conduct Authority has confirmed an industry-wide redress scheme for customers who were treated unfairly between 2007 and 2024.

The concern is not simply that commission existed, but whether the customer was properly informed and whether the arrangement made the relationship unfair.

For details of this or help with your situation, please contact our team.

If you have been the victim of financial fraud or a scam recently, we strongly suggest that you follow the advice of the Financial Ombudsman and, where appropriate, contact the police on 101 and/or your bank or payment services provider immediately.

For legal guidance, please do not hesitate to reach out to our team.

Get in touch

How our solicitors can help

Our Litigation Team provides clear, commercially focused advice throughout every stage of a financial services dispute.

We can help by:

Reviewing contracts, advice and financial documentation
Establishing how the loss arose
Assessing potential claims and defences
Preserving important evidence
Managing correspondence with financial institutions
Negotiating settlements
Pursuing alternative dispute resolution
Bringing or defending court proceedings

Where a dispute involves wider corporate, employment or regulatory considerations, we can work closely with colleagues across the firm to provide joined-up advice.

Act before your options become limited

Financial services disputes are often time sensitive. Legal limitation periods may apply, while delays can make evidence more difficult to obtain and allow losses to increase.

Obtaining advice at an early stage can help your business preserve its position, limit further disruption and identify the most effective route towards a resolution.

Speak to us about your business financial services dispute