RBS settles over “copyrighted” trading software
UK-based Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has said it has reached a settlement with a company that claimed it was using its software without a license, bringing a six-year dispute to a close.
Terms of the settlement, with Complex Systems, were not disclosed, but it ends a dispute that began in 2008.
The settlement will allow RBS to continue using New-Jersey based Complex Systems’ BankTrade software for its financial processing.
In a statement, RBS said its clients remain its primary focus, and that the settlement “assures them of continued commitment” to its trade finance business.
The lawsuit filed by Complex Systems against RBS in 2008 was triggered by RBS subsidiary ABN Amro’s multi-billion dollar sale to Bank of America of LaSalle Bank the year before. La Salle had been licensing the BankTrade software from Complex Systems.
In May this year, in a judgment at the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, a permanent injunction was issued demanding that ABN Amro stop using the BankTrade software within a year.
The court said that the license to use the software went to Bank of America following the sale but that RBS had continued to use it.
According to the judgment, BankTrade is “copyrighted software used to facilitate certain banking actions”.
RBS appealed and asked that the court’s ruling was put on hold in the meantime. But, in June this year, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit denied the request.
RBS said the deal it has now reached will allow it to use the BankTrade software and continue processing trade finance transactions across all its legal entities.
Complex Systems did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
