LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) won an appeal on Wednesday in its bid to impose a more than $700 million redress scheme for investors in BlueCrest Capital Management.
BlueCrest, the investment firm co-founded by billionaire Michael Platt, successfully challenged the planned scheme at a London tribunal last year.
The FCA, however, took the case to the Court of Appeal in an attempt to revive its plans for a redress scheme and won its appeal.
Judge Andrew Popplewell said in a written ruling that "the FCA is entitled in an appropriate case to impose redress for loss of a kind which is not recoverable in the courts".
The judge added that the issue of whether the FCA's proposed redress scheme should go ahead would be determined at a full trial.
The FCA says BlueCrest failed to manage fairly a conflict of interest created by switching portfolio managers working on a fund open to investors outside BlueCrest, to an internal fund open to partners and employees, leading to "substandard" client service between 2011 and 2015.
It wants to impose a redress scheme, with an estimated value of over $700 million, and levy a fine of nearly 41 million pounds ($54.4 million).
The FCA said in a statement that Wednesday's ruling has wider implications for its ability to secure redress for consumers.
A spokesperson for BlueCrest said the firm does not comment on live litigation.
(Reporting by Aby Jose Koilparambil in Bengaluru and Sam Tobin in London; Editing by Vijay Kishore and Sachin Ravikumar)
