UK: High Court refuses to order bank to disclose its Credit Process Guide

In pre-action correspondence, a Bank disclosed its underwriting guidelines for mortgages, which stated they were to be read in conjunction with the key credit policy document for the relevant business, a Credit Process Guide.  Unsurprisingly, the defendants sought disclosure of the Credit Process Guide. The Bank resisted on the basis that it did not come within the test for standard disclosure, and as the document was commercially sensitive, the Bank was not prepared to provide it voluntarily.  The High Court's recently published decision shows that a court will examine closely whether a document comes within the test for standard disclosure: references to the document in another disclosed document will not be sufficient, nor is the fact that it might prove helpful for the purposes of cross-examination.   Our litigation notes set out a more detailed analysis of the decision in Ward Hadaway v DB (UK) Bank [2013] EWHC 4538 (Ch).