Banks Can Argue Funds Passed On UK Forex Rigging Losses
Christopher Crosby, 25 February 2021
Institutional investors suing some of the world’s largest banks for manipulating the foreign exchange market will have to prove their losses were not passed on to others after a London court ruled on Thursday that the issue has to be determined at trial.
Nigel Teare, sitting as a judge at the High Court, refused to knock down the legal defense raised by Barclays, CitiBank, HSBC and other lenders to fight claims for damages for allegedly manipulating benchmark rates in the forex market..
The ruling means the lenders can attempt to deflect the lawsuit brought by approximately 170 institutional investors by claiming that the pension funds themselves cannot sue on behalf of their investors, who the banks claim actually suffered the alleged losses.
Judge Teare said there is at least an arguable case that the pension funds, two-thirds of which are trusts, should not be suing in place of the beneficiaries of those trusts.
“It is an allegation with a real prospect of success,” he wrote.
