Expats secure halifax shares payout settlement

An agreed settlement of a class action heard in New Jersey means 12,000 expats who were residing in the US at the time of the flotation, will share an estimated US$8.6 million, about $720 each, in lieu of the shares.

The figure is based on the estimated value of the windfall shares they would have received when the building society demutualised in June 1997, net of legal fees and other expenses.

Prior to this settlement, only a few expats had won compensation. A dozen were awarded through the UK financial Ombudsman in 1999, as they claimed they were given misleading advice by Halifax branch staff.

The Telegraph Weekly World Edition first highlighted the issue in 1998, after the Halifax denied windfall shares to British expatriates residing outside “permitted territories”, the list of territories where the Halifax was prepared to issue shares. The US, Canada and many other countries where potential shareholders were living were excluded from the list. Later demutualisations by other building societies and insurance companies made it clear expats could move their address to a permitted territory ahead of the flotation deadline.

Source: Telegraph