[2025] UKUT 00185 (TCC)

We have already found as facts that in August 2018, the RWA adjustment for CLIP loans was quoted before any SME supporting factor, but that the figures provided in the subsequent RWA Report in October 2018 were explicitly stated to be net of SME adjustments, see §118 and §174.

The figures in the RWA Report were arrived at after the Bank’s staff had applied the KPMG decision trees to the loan books, and one of the factors in those decision trees was whether the SME supporting factor applied, see §159.

Mr Donaldson said that by the time of the Q3 Update he did not know whether the SME adjustment was right or wrong, because he had been provided with some figures which included it, and some which did not, so he had “lost faith” in the data and that was why Deloitte had been instructed. We do not accept that evidence, because:

Even if some loans which were entitled to the SME factor had been overlooked or wrongly classified, others might have been wrongly identified as benefitting from that factor, as Mr Donaldson agreed under cross-examination.

We therefore find as a fact that there was no material uncertainty at the time of the Q3 Update about the application of the SME factor, and we reject Mr Donaldson’s evidence to the contrary.