Barclays’ lawsuit against Bear Stearns is not the first claim to emerge from the wreckage of the US subprime mortgage market. However, the fact that a large UK bank is prepared to go public with its case against a Wall Street securities house suggests that some epic legal battles might arise from the past six months of market turmoil.

The lawsuit, filed in New York on Wednesday night, comes after Barclays was a victim of the collapse of a Bear Stearns-managed hedge fund that invested heavily in complex subprime securities.