The Royal Bank of Scotland has reached a settlement that lets it use critical trade finance software from vendor Complex Systems that a US judge had banned it from over copyright infringement.
In May New York district judge Katherine Forrest told the bank to cease using the BankTrade software for new trade finance transactions within 60 days and completely within a year.
However, now RBS has reached a settlement with Complex Systems enabling it to carry on using the software. "Our clients remain our primary focus, and this settlement assures them of our continued commitment to our trade finance business," says an RBS statement given to Reuters.
The initial ruling came after a six year legal wrangle which began after RBS acquired Dutch banking giant ABN Amro in 2007. ABN Amro, through its US subsidiary LaSalle, licensed BankTrade - which is used for processing transactions such as letters of credit, loans, guarantees and fund transfers - from Complex systems.
However, ABN Amro sold LaSalle to Bank of America in a bid to scupper RBS's takeover. RBS then failed to transfer the BankTrade license yet continued to use the software.
In her ruling, Forrest had said RBS could "not continue benefiting from its blatant and ongoing infringement simply because stopping that infringement will be disruptive to its business".