Bosses escape blame for options blow-up at Swedish bank

Court rules negligence by former managers and auditor of HQ Bank did not cause 2010 licence withdrawal

Stockholm, Sweden. A court has ruled negligence by former managers and auditor KPMG did not cause the withdrawal of HQ Bank's licence in 2010

A Swedish bank that had its banking licence revoked in 2010 after risk management failures has lost its claim for damages against its former management and auditor. Last month, the court said that although the defendants had acted negligently, their actions were not sufficient to cause the damage.

HQ Bank was effectively shut down by Sweden’s financial supervisor Finansinspektionen after its trading business ran up losses of Skr1.17 billion ($175 million at 2010 exchange rates, or $143 million