NatWest, a leading financial institution, has disclosed a significant potential liability in its half-year results. The bank faces a $1.1 billion damages claim from a shipyard in Buenos Aires, Tandanor, alleging fraudulent conduct during its privatisation in 1991.
The claim was initially filed in 2012, but the claimants updated the figure in December, specifying the damages at $1.1 billion. The case is related to the sale of the state-owned shipyard under Argentina's then-president Carlos Menem in the early 1990s.
The claim was brought by Tandanor against the representative office of the Royal Bank of Scotland Argentine branch and 11 private individuals. According to NatWest, the representative office, which is in liquidation, had a 2.9 per cent participation in the privatisation.
The representative office inherited the claim from Banco Holandés Unido, a bank that formed part of the Dutch group ABN Amro and was bought by RBS in 2007. The Argentine ministry of defence joined Tandanor's claim in 2014.
An Argentine court initially dismissed the claim on limitation grounds in 2018, but the claimants were unsuccessful in subsequent appeals. However, a series of judicial proceedings since November 2024 has returned the case to the Argentine Federal District Court for further consideration.
NatWest has stated that the representative office continues to defend the claim and has requested a hearing. The disclosure came in results where profit before tax rose 20.4 per cent to £4.3 billion for the first half of 2026.
The claim is a legacy of RBS's expansion before the financial crisis. RBS was bailed out by the taxpayer in 2008, changed its name to NatWest in 2020, and returned to full private ownership last year after the Treasury sold down its stake in the £45.5 billion rescue.
Tandanor was privatised in 1991 and was later renationalised in 2007. No hearing date has been set, and NatWest's results did not include any estimate of the potential outcome of the proceedings.
