Banks may finally make use of their provisions for their 28-year-old - and more than 20-year impaired - loans to Bell Group. The company, which became an arm of Alan Bond's business empire, failed at the beginning of 1990s.Banks and the liquidator of Bell (backed by the Western Australian government) have wrangled for two decades over the affair,Yesterday, national newspapers reported that a High Court hearing due this week has been adjourned, to allow for settlement negotiations. In August last year, the Court of Appeal in Western Australia ruled that the banks owe even more than the A$1.5 billion slapped on them in a May 2009 ruling.Tony Woodings, liquidator of the Bell Group, estimated then that the effect of the court's ruling would help lift the amount payable to $2 billion, or even $3 billion.       Banks will also have to pay in the order of $250 million in legal costs incurred by the Western Australian government over 18 years, as well as most of the bills of the convertible bond-holders who joined the action.As recently as August, Commonwealth Bank raised what it described as "an additional provision" (also described as "Bell Group litigation expenses") for its share of the damages the Appeal Court ordered the banks to pay to Bell's liquidators.The Bell liquidators, Geoff Totterdell and Tony Woodings, and the trustee for a group of bond-holders, alleged malfeasance on the part of Bell's bankers, who refinanced the company in January 1990 when they knew it was broke; wrongly claimed control of the proceeds of certain Bell asset sales during 1990 and 1991; and sold Bell's assets for arguably less than they were worth in 1992 to recover their debts.At the time of the January 1990 refinancing, Bell owed the banks $278 million.