Banking litigation

This section principally focuses on litigation relating to commercial banking activities. Types of matters include litigation for claims of mis-selling of financial products, professional negligence, breaches of warranty, civil fraud and matters arising out of bank failures and state bailouts.

The current economic diffi culties in Spain have led to an increase in litigation, putting the judiciary under severe pressure. The number of civil claims has been growing fi rmly over the past decade with over two million claims fi led in 2009 and almost one and a half million cases fi led by mid 2010, compared to less than 900,000 in 2007. To a certain extent this has led to an increasing tendency to resort to arbitration and other alternative dispute resolution methods such as mediation.