Bank Defense

With our deep-rooted presence in the banking industry, Chapman’s Litigation Group has defended virtually every type of claim financial institutions may encounter, including: 

• Bank to bank claims
• Customer claims
• Fraud claims
• Payment systems claims, including those pertaining to check fraud, wire transfers, interbank check processing, and electronic payments
• Securities investigations and enforcement matters
• Unfair competition claims, including tortious interference, deceptive trade practices, and conversion of business assets
• Uniform Commercial Code, Articles 3 and 4, as well as Federal Regulation Z claims

REPRESENTATIVE MATTERS

• Defended a large financial institution sued on claims of conversion and aiding and abetting a breach of fiduciary duty where a trustee of multiple family trusts drew checks on trust funds maintained at other banks and deposited those checks into an account at the client bank. The litigation, which involved multiple banks, focused on Uniform Commercial Code Articles 3 and 4 and representations and warranties relative to negotiable instruments.
• Defended a bank client in connection with the change of ownership of an investment advisory account from a decedent’s name alone to a joint account with his second wife. Litigation proceeded in courts in two states after contribution claims were added to the lawsuits, with the matter settled through mediation.
• Represented a bank sued by its customer in connection with a fraud perpetrated by one of the customer’s employees. 
• Defended a client Illinois bank after it was closed and the bank’s owners were indicted. The FDIC made a claim against our client bank, alleging that the conspirators’ access to the client bank accounts facilitated their fraud and ultimately destroyed the closed bank. In negotiations with the FDIC, we convinced the agency that it did not have a claim against our bank client.
• Represented a large financial institution sued for conversion by a bank loaning funds to repair real estate, where the contractor allegedly forged the signatures of the loan customer on two-party checks and deposited the instruments at our client bank. 
• Represented a bank in dealing with FBI, DOJ, and recovery actions in connection with discovery of multimillion-dollar internal fraud initiated by a longtime employee who had earlier retired. The matter was resolved through the recovery of real estate in Illinois and Florida purchased with stolen funds and through litigation against the principal beneficiary of the fraud. 
• Defended a group of seven banks against a multimillion-dollar breach of contract claim by a national outsourcer of bank data processing services.

Related Practices