FIN. TeamOn 9 March 2018, the High Court considered an application for the sanction of a ring-fencing transfer scheme (RFTS) made by Barclays Bank plc in the case of Re Barclays Bank plc and another [2018] EWHC 472 (Ch).
As this was the first application for the sanction of an RFTS under section 111 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, the court considered it appropriate to set out the legal principles on which it considered it should act in exercising its discretion to sanction an RFTS.
The court held that the ring-fencing transfer of Barclays’ retail banking business is unlikely to have an adverse effect on the bank’s pension scheme and the statutory pre-conditions for the sanction of the Barclays RFTS had been or would be satisfied. The Court held it was appropriate, in all the circumstances of the case, for it to sanction the Barclays RFTS under section 111(3) of FSMA.
