LONDON, Nov 8 (Reuters) - Alleged manipulation of the Liborbenchmark interest rate can be included in two court casesinvolving Barclays and Deutsche Bank, aBritish judge said in what could be seen as a landmark ruling onFriday.
The decision, handed down in the UK Court of Appeal, is seenas potentially setting a precedent and could open the door tomany more cases being brought against the industry by companiesciting the manipulation of the key lending benchmark.
Successful court cases could expose banks to compensationclaims worth billions of pounds from borrowers.
In previous legal rulings judges have stopped short ofsaying Libor is relevant to all claims against banks but said itcould be used in cases where contracts have been linkedspecifically to the benchmark.
Deutsche Bank said it was disappointed by the Judge'sdecision to include some Libor matters in its case againstIndian property company Unitech. The bank said it intended tolaunch an appeal.
Echoing the German bank's disappointment, Barclays said theallegations of mis-selling Libor-linked interest rate hedgingproducts to client Graisley were without foundation.
"With or without the Libor claims, the allegations ofmis-selling have no merit," the British bank said in astatement.
The rulings followed a 3-day hearing at the Court of Appealat London's Royal Court of Justice last month.