Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP is delighted to invite you to a webinar, which will focus on potential investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) tools available to bond investors in Singapore, Hong Kong, and Greater China to seek recourse following the decision by Swiss governmental authorities to write down the value of Credit Suisse AT1 bonds.

Partners Gary Born, Jonathan Lim and Danielle Morris will provide an overview of potential investor-State arbitration options for affected bondholders under the EFTA-Singapore FTA and Switzerland-China BIT. They will be joined by economic and financial experts, Stephen Kingsley and Karthik Balisagar of FTI Consulting LLP, who will discuss relevant economic and regulatory considerations, including the financial characteristics of AT1 bonds and how the non-viability trigger for AT1s was assessed.

• Key substantive protections under the relevant treaties;
• How ISDS works and the procedural and jurisdictional aspects of claims under the relevant treaties;
• Key events that allegedly led to the failure of Credit Suisse;
• The recovery and resolution framework for systematically important banks and relevant regulations; and
• The types of triggers for AT1s and how regulators assess non-viability.

Gary Born is widely regarded as the world's preeminent authority on international arbitration. He has one of the world’s busiest and most varied international arbitration practices with a particular focus on investment arbitration. He has served as counsel or arbitrator in numerous investment arbitrations, including several of the most important investment arbitrations in recent years and has also served as expert witness in multiple investment arbitrations. In his former role as President of the SIAC Court, he led the inauguration of the SIAC Investment Arbitration Rules, the first such set of rules by an arbitral institution other than ICSID.

Jonathan Lim is a triple-qualified English solicitor, Singapore advocate, and New York lawyer with a focus on complex international disputes. He has a broad practice representing clients in all types of commercial and investment treaty arbitrations seated in common law and civil law jurisdictions worldwide. Mr. Lim regularly sits as arbitrator and has received appointments as sole and party-appointed arbitrator in multiple proceedings seated in Europe and Asia. Mr. Lim is Co-Chair of the Asia-Pacific Forum for International Arbitration and a member of the AFSA International Court. He teaches international arbitration at the National University of Singapore.

Danielle Morris represents clients in both ad hoc and institutional arbitrations, including under the rules of ICSID, the LCIA, the SCC and UNCITRAL. She has represented clients in various sectors, including the mining, oil and gas, financial services, construction, pharmaceutical and automotive sectors. Ms. Morris regularly advises clients on the substantive protections and dispute resolution mechanisms under various investment treaties, both bilateral and multilateral, and has represented both investors and States in investment arbitrations.

Stephen Kingsley has spent more than 40 years in the financial sector focusing on investment and retail banks as an auditor, and later as a consultant, as a non-executive director and as an expert witness. For many years, he was the head of the global financial services practices at Arthur Andersen, then FTI Consulting. He was a non-executive director at Credit Suisse’s investment bank in 2012-2015, and was the Chairman of its Audit Committee between January 2013 and March 2015. Mr. Kingsley has a deep understanding of bank governance and led direct interactions between banks and prudential regulators, both in the UK and internationally.

Karthik Balisagar is a Senior Managing Director at FTI Consulting and is based in London. He has 17 years’ experience in valuation and transaction consulting. At FTI Consulting, Karthik specialises in valuation and damages issues in the context of international arbitration and litigation. He has acted and is currently acting as an expert in multiple disputes in the banking sector including investor-state disputes in the context of failed or failing banks. He was appointed as a joint expert in a dispute pertaining to the resolution of a large European bank, in which AT1 securities were written down. Karthik has prepared expert reports for submission to Singapore, UK, Dutch and EU courts, as well as in arbitrations under ICC, HKIAC, ICSID, UNCITRAL and LCIA rules.