Lex Greensill has been disqualified from acting as a company director for nine years.
The Australian financier, founder of collapsed North West FinTech Greensill Capital, has been banned until June 2035 following an investigation by The Insolvency Service.
Lex Greensill, a former sugar farmer now aged 49, was a director of three companies within the Greensill Group – Greensill Capital (UK) Limited, Greensill Limited and Australian parent company Greensill Capital Pty Limited – which collapsed in 2021 with combined liabilities of more than £1.6 billion.
Following the collapse it emerged that former Prime Minister Lord Cameron had sent dozens of messages during the COVID-19 pandemic requesting that Greensill be granted access to the government’s coronavirus loan support scheme.
Cameron had joined Greensill as an adviser after leaving Downing Street and owned stock options in the then-struggling company. The Treasury select committee found in July 2021 that the politician had shown a “significant lack of judgement”.
Lex Greensill was due to face a six-week trial from Monday (8th June), but that has been avoided after he signed a disqualification undertaking – a legally-binding agreement where directors do not dispute certain facts, for the purposes of the disqualification proceedings only, to end court action.
Greensill Capital, backed by Credit Suisse, specialised in supply chain finance which was funded through the creation and sale of security-backed ‘notes’ – financial instruments similar to bonds.
The Credit Suisse (Lux) Supply Chain Finance Fund purchased a series of notes backed by receivables (similar to payment obligations) relating to US construction group Katerra. The notes also benefited from trade credit insurance.
However Lex Greensill caused his three companies to enter transactions that removed the legal protections underpinning the Credit Suisse fund’s investment in late 2020.
The transactions meant that the receivables no longer required payment, security held against those receivables was released, and the payment obligations supporting the fund’s trade credit insurance were cancelled. The transactions were entered into without the written consents required.
Lex Greensill also caused or allowed Greensill Capital (UK) Limited to use $440 million received in November 2020 for purposes other than redeeming the notes owed to the Credit Suisse fund.
The notes all defaulted when they fell due, resulting in a loss of $440m to the Credit Suisse fund.
His conduct breached his legal duty under the Companies Act 2006 to exercise reasonable care, skill and diligence as a company director, The Insolvency Service stated.
The disqualification undertaking was accepted by the Secretary of State for Business and Trade on Tuesday 2nd June and his ban comes into effect on Tuesday 23 June.
Duncan Beach, chief executive at The Insolvency Service, said: “Director disqualifications exist to protect the public from those who have demonstrated they are unfit to run companies. A nine-year ban is a significant period – above the average for director disqualifications – and reflects the serious nature of Lex Greensill’s conduct.
“The Insolvency Service has ambitious plans to be recognised as the UK’s leading authority in enforcing corporate and insolvency standards. Director disqualifications are an important tool in helping us achieve our goals.
“Through securing more impactful disqualifications in the months and years to come, we will continue to protect the public and safeguard the marketplace from those directors whose conduct makes them unfit to be involved in the management of companies.”
Insolvency Service investigations began in May 2022, and the agency announced it had commenced disqualification proceedings against Lex Greensill in March 2024.
The businessman unsuccessfully applied to temporarily pause part of the claim in May 2025. He then unsuccessfully applied to strike out the entire claim in March 2026, and the Court of Appeal refused to give him permission to appeal against that decision.