No Indian summer

The failure of a raft of contracts sold as structured product hedges to medium-sized companies in India looks set to provoke a fierce backlash by the country's authorities against the derivatives industry. By Duncan Wood

India's derivatives market is in the spotlight again, after currency movements left some small and medium-sized companies with mark-to-market (MtM) losses big enough to threaten them with bankruptcy. Around 15 of the worst-hit organisations have now filed lawsuits alleging mis-selling, in the hope that judges can be persuaded to declare the contracts void.

It is the first time that derivatives in India have reached the courtroom - and lawyers warn that the initial wave of cases is being monitored