ABN AMRO : lodges Supreme Court appeal in Euribor cases

ABN AMRO has lodged a Supreme Court appeal against the ruling of the Amsterdam court on 19 December 2017. In the so-called Euribor cases, clients have been seeking a ruling whether ABN AMRO was legally entitled to increase the mark-up on their Euribor-based mortgages.

The bank needs to be able to adjust the mark-up to protect the financial health of its business operations. In 2009, and again in 2012, ABN AMRO increased the mark-up on its Euribor-based mortgages in response to market conditions. Since then, the bank has lowered the mark-up several times for the same reason.

A number of our clients disagreed with the higher mark-up, and jointly engaged foundations to take the matter to court on their behalf. The Amsterdam court issued a ruling on 11 November 2015, against which ABN AMRO lodged an appeal. On 19 December 2017 the Amsterdam court reached a decision on the appeal.

The new ruling, which takes account of European legislation and case law, states that the provisions on which ABN AMRO based its decision to raise the mark-up are unfair and therefore not valid.

In ABN AMRO's view, the arguments presented by the bank have not been given due consideration in this ruling. The court failed to mention in its ruling one of the main reasons put forward by ABN AMRO why the provisions are not unfair: to offset the uncertainty that the mark-up might be increased, clients have the certainty that they can always switch free of charge from the Euribor interest rate to a different, market-based rate offered by the bank.

Moreover, in its assessment of ABN AMRO's arguments that no unfair provisions underlie the bank's decision to increase the mark-up, the court has not followed the procedure prescribed earlier by the Supreme Court.

Finally, in ABN AMRO's view, the Amsterdam court has misapplied the European Court's transparency criteria in this case.

ABN AMRO sees sufficient indications that the court's ruling will not be upheld, and has therefore decided to lodge a Supreme Court appeal.

ABN AMRO regrets that it is engaged in legal proceedings with a number of its clients. This announcement will change nothing for clients at this time. Clients have been sent a letter, which will likely arrive today, with further information about the Supreme Court appeal. ABN AMRO will continue to keep its clients informed of new developments as they unfold. If the Amsterdam court ruling is after all upheld by the Supreme Court, the bank will contact them. Clients do not need to take action.