Barclays, RBS and others settle U$2bn currency-rigging lawsuits
Jonathan Jones, 14 August 2015
HSBC (LON:HSBA), Barclays (LON:BARC), Royal Bank of Scotland (LON:RBS) and two other banks settled on yet more payouts for currency-rigging.
The banks settled with US investors, agreeing to a payout which took the overall total paid to the investors to US$2bn (£1.28bn) from nine banks.
US heavyweight Goldman Sachs and BNP Paribas also settled.
It’s another round of payouts after six banks, including Barclays and RBS were, in May, ordered to pay US$6bn (£3.84bn) by UK and US authorities.
At the time, Barclays was hit with the biggest bank fine in British history.
American investors claimed the banks joined together to manipulate the US$5.3trn a day foreign exchange market.
Legal firm Hausfeld, which represented the investors, said that the agreements were preliminary and subject to approval by US District Judge Lorna Schofield.
As yet, there has been no information on how the sum would be divided between the banks if passed.
“In addition to the billions of dollars in compensation, these settling banks have agreed to cooperate with investors in their continuing litigation” against other institutions, Hausfeld said.
The banks yet to settle are Standard Chartered (LON:STAN), Societe Generale, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, RBC Capital Markets, Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley.
The US$2bn includes earlier settlements of US$800mln, with JPMorgan, Bank of America, UBS and Citigroup.
“While the recoveries here are tremendous, they are just the beginning,” said Hausfeld chairman Michael Hausfeld.
“Investors around the world should take note of the significant recoveries secured in the United States and recognize that these settlements cover a fraction of the world’s largest financial market,” he said.
