Creditors of Bank of Credit and Commerce International lost an appeal against the Bank of England yesterday over claims it wrongfully granted BCCI a licence, but the bank's liquidators said they would seek a further appeal.

Britain's Court of Appeal upheld a ruling in October 1997 that the liquidators' claim could not be proved and should be struck out. The creditors are seeking compensations worth £600 million sterling from the BoE on grounds of misfeasance - wrongful exercise of lawful authority - including allegations that it did not move quickly enough to withdraw BCCI's licence.

Mr Christopher Morris, at joint liquidators Deloitte & Touche, said they would be seeking leave next week to appeal to the House of Lords, the country's highest court.

"We always knew that the case would end up one way or the other in the House of Lords, and that looks as though that's going to happen," said Mr Morris. "We think that we will ultimately prevail."

Another source for the liquidators said a judgment could be reached next year or into 2000. He noted, however, that it was the first time that anyone had come close to successfully suing a central bank in Britain or continental Europe.

The appeal court ruled by a majority of two to one that the liquidators' claim was not arguable. Judges said it was "inconceivable that new material would emerge of such significance as to alter that conclusion". It also said also dismissed a claim based on a European law which the liquidators had added to the proceedings.

However, Mr Morris said the liquidators would be seeking an interpretation of the law with which one judge in the appeal court agreed.

BCCI collapsed and was closed by banking regulators in 1991 with debts of $12 billion in what was the biggest fraud in banking history. It left behind some 150,000 depositors wordwide, 6,000 of whom are in Britain.