HSBC is appealing the decision to reinstate the banker’s discrimination claim

HSBC on Thursday challenged a tribunal’s decision to reopen the lawsuit of a female senior investment banker who claims the bank victimized and discriminated against her when it did not hire her for a senior sales position in 2018.

Carmen Chevalier-Firescu, 41, sued the bank at an employment tribunal in 2020, claiming she was not appointed as head of HSBC’s London derivatives sales team for hedge funds, in part because she sued her former employer, Barclays BARC.L, for firing her after she returned from maternity leave.

Her case was dismissed by a court, but was reinstated on appeal in February. HSBC told the Court of Appeal on Thursday that its claims should be rejected in part because it filed them after the standard three-month deadline.

The lawsuit is a rare example of an employment claim against a prospective rather than current employer.

HSBC declined to comment.

HSBC’s lawyer, Diya Sen Gupta, told the court that Chevalier-Firescu had delayed suing HSBC because she was worried about the impact it would have on her employment prospects.

But her lawyer, Oliver Segal, said she only learned in 2020 why she was not hired through a formal request for personal data held by the bank.

She gave documents showing that HSBC’s hiring managers rejected her in part because of her lawsuit against Barclays.

Chevalier-Firescu and Barclays reached a settlement in 2019 and she received a seven-figure settlement, a clean reference and a ban on the bank in contempt, according to the February ruling.

She also discovered that her former Barclays boss, a Lebanese man, had given negative feedback. An HSBC manager told her in 2020 that this made her harder to hire because of the senior, male Lebanese managers employed at HSBC.

Chevalier-Firescu is seeking undisclosed damages. The Court of Appeal will publish a decision later.

(Reporting by Kirstin Ridley; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)