This article was displayed on the ChosunBiz MoneyMove (MM) site at 3:39 p.m. on Feb. 2, 2026.
Standard Chartered Bank, which handled the currency swap (FX hedge) for Germany's Trianon fund, has filed a lawsuit seeking hundreds of billions of won in settlement payments against IGIS Asset Management and NongHyup Bank, the trustee. With negotiations with the lending syndicate already having fallen through, triggering an event of default (EOD) and making losses on the investment unavoidable, the added litigation risk is expected to further complicate the fund's liquidation process.
According to the investment banking (IB) industry on the 2nd, Standard Chartered Bank recently filed a lawsuit seeking approximately 38 billion won in FX hedge settlement payments against NongHyup Bank and IGIS Asset Management. NongHyup Bank is the trustee of "IGIS Global Real Estate Investment Trust No. 229," which is backed by the Trianon building in Germany, and IGIS Asset Management is the fund's manager.
Completed in 1990, the Trianon building is a 186-meter-tall, 45-story office tower in Frankfurt's financial district in Germany. Earlier, IGIS Asset Management set up a total 370 billion won fund in 2018 to invest in the Trianon building and local residential real estate assets. It raised 183.5 billion won via a private fund for institutional investors and 186.8 billion won via a public fund for retail investors. It then established a local special-purpose company (SPC) in Luxembourg, secured approximately 500 billion won in collateralized loans, and, adding the investment principal, purchased the Trianon building for about 900 billion won.
At the time the fund was set up, IGIS Asset Management entered into a currency swap contract with Standard Chartered Bank to reduce exchange-rate risk. However, in 2023, as the fund's net asset value fell to 50% or less of its initial level, the FX hedge contract was terminated early, and Standard Chartered Bank notified the parties to pay the settlement amount. The bank then sought a provisional attachment of NongHyup Bank's deposit accounts to preserve its claims and is understood to have filed a formal lawsuit this month.
The Trianon fund is currently proceeding with an asset sale led by the lending syndicate. With the European office market broadly depressed due to rate hikes following the COVID-19 pandemic and external conditions worsening, including tenant move-outs, the process has entered insolvency proceedings under local law.
If it loses this lawsuit, disruptions to the fund's liquidation are seen as unavoidable. That is because it could become difficult to execute the expenses that must be carried out in the liquidation process. In fact, following the provisional attachment decision by Standard Chartered Bank, IGIS Asset Management is said to have covered some expenses on its own. As the fund's remaining assets shrink, the pool available for distribution to investors will inevitably decline, raising concerns about greater investor losses.
The industry views Standard Chartered Bank as holding the upper hand in this lawsuit. In mid-month, Standard Chartered Bank won an FX hedge settlement suit related to the "EQHO" fund, a large office in La Défense, France, managed by Mastern Investment Management. At the time, the court ruled that "the obligation to perform is limited to the trust assets."