BNY Mellon hit as Argentina revokes licence
Bank of New York Mellon was yesterday hit by a double whammy after Argentina stripped its licence to operate in the country. And it was revealed that George Soros had launched legal proceedings in London against it.
Argentina’s Congress is due tomorrow to discuss a law that would replace BNY Mellon as intermediary for payments on foreign law bonds with Banco Nacion, as part of a new debt-restructuring plan.
The central bank “has revoked BNY’s authorisation for representation in Argentina,” Cabinet Chief Jorge Capitanich said.
The central bank said it took the measure because BNY Mellon had failed to fulfil technical requirements to operate in the country.
BNY Mellon in June obeyed a US court ruling to block a $539m (£325m) interest payment on debt that was restructured following Argentina’s record 2002 debt default.
The court had ruled Argentina could not pay holders of restructured bonds unless it also paid “holdout” US investment funds, which refused the country’s 2005 and 2010 bond swaps in the wake of the 2002 default on about $100bn of debt.
Meanwhile, BNY Mellon is being sued by creditors including billionaire investor Soros in the Chancery Division of the High Court of Justice, in London. BNY Mellon’s “actions have been designed consistently to protect its own interests without reference to the interests” of the bondholders, they claim.
BNY Mellon said the action was “without merit”, adding: “BNY Mellon has consistently followed the binding court orders that govern its actions as trustee in this matter.”