Market Manipulation Case Reopening Adds to Credit Suisse’s Woes
Alicia McElhaney, 28 April 2021
Although appellate court judges threw out some claims against the bank, they said that market manipulation allegations were “plausible.”
Credit Suisse is having another rough week.
A U.S. Appeals Court reopened a 2018 case alleging that Credit Suisse had engaged in market manipulation of some exchange-traded notes that short the VIX, a popular proxy for volatility.
The reopened case comes as the European Commission announced on Wednesday that it had fined the bank and three others, alleging that they had formed a “cartel in the secondary trading market,” and as the United States Senate Finance Committee said it had launched a probe into Credit Suisse. The Finance Committee is looking at whether the bank allowed wealthy individuals to shield their assets from the government, in violation of a 2014 plea agreement. (Commenting on the EC, a spokesman said in an emailed statement that, “Credit Suisse continues to believe that the single former employee whom the EC criticized did not engage in anti-competitive conduct.” The bank intends to appeal the decision.)
The Swiss bank is also still reeling from taking significant losses related to the blow up of Archegos, the heavily leveraged family office of former hedge fund manager Bill Hwang.