Fideres provided comprehensive consulting expert analysis supporting the filing of Gibbs v. HSBC Global Asset Management (Canada) Ltd. & HSBC Investment Funds (Canada) Inc. in British Columbia Supreme Court, uncovering evidence that actively managed funds were engaging in “closet indexing” while charging excessive management fees.
Fideres conducted detailed statistical analysis of the HSBC Equity Fund’s investment patterns, examining tracking error, active share metrics, and correlation coefficients to demonstrate how the fund closely replicated the S&P/TSX Capped Composite Index despite being marketed as actively managed. The expert analysis revealed that investors were systematically overcharged for active management services they never received, as the fund’s investment strategy constituted passive index tracking.
The comprehensive economic analysis, covering fund performance data from 2005 onwards, provided the evidentiary foundation for Investigation Counsel P.C. to file this groundbreaking class action on behalf of Canadian investors. Following years of legal challenges, Fideres’s expert work proved decisive when the BC Court of Appeal unanimously certified the class action in February 2025, establishing important precedent that investors need not prove fraudulent intent in closet indexing cases and opening pathways for similar litigation across Canada’s fund management industry.