[2025] UKUT 00185 (TCC)

In oral evidence, Mr Donaldson and Mr Arden went further than the findings we have made above. Mr Donaldson said he “didn’t believe the data” and “didn’t trust the data”; he asked “how could I have any trust of the systems and controls within the organisation”, and declared that “we had lost faith in the [Bank’s internal] team”. Mr Arden similarly said “I'm not sure at this stage that I believed anything that was being presented to me”; and “I didn't quite believe anything that the internal team were telling me”.

We agree with Mr Stanley that this evidence was not reflective of the position at the relevant time. If Mr Donaldson and/or Mr Arden had no confidence whatsoever in the Bank’s financial data, this would have been reflected in the contemporaneous evidence. Instead, that evidence shows that the concerns were about the classification and risk-weighting of loans.

As Mr Stanley said, were we to be wrong in that finding, and instead were to accept Mr Donaldson’s and Mr Arden’s evidence that at the time of the Q3 Update they had a total lack of confidence in the Bank’s systems and data, that would not help their case, because the Bank would then have been unable to publish any financial information to the market.