The start of a new decade seems a good time to take stock of the likely sources of litigation risk for financial institutions.

Change and uncertainty have always fuelled litigation. Altered conditions can show agreed contractual terms as not being up to their intended task; commercial bargains which don’t perform as hoped lead to attempts by disappointed parties to extricate themselves; factors affecting wider business performance impact on parties’ appetite for – or indeed need for – litigation.

Rather than pick individual cases, we have identified a number of themes which are illustrated in what we are seeing as actual, threatened and potential litigation. Despite differing systems of dispute resolution across the globe, these themes show a marked degree of consistency.