Major Banks Appeal to the Court for Dismissal of FX Rates Manipulation Class Action Lawsuit

A dozen major global banks accused of allegedly rigging the FX markets asked US District Judge Lorna Schofield on Friday to dismiss all the claims against them. In their filing to the Manhattan Federal Court the banks argued that the accusers had failed to properly prove the existence of an international conspiracy.

The case in question is a consolidated antitrust lawsuit based on the allegations by and that institutional traders at the major banks conspired to collectively distort FX rates for the benefit of the banks and to the detriment of their clients and other traders in the global market.

The allegations were brought up after a wave of announcements by financial regulators and law enforcements agencies from around the world confirming that investigations of the major banks are ongoing. As Forex Magnates , the investigations focus on Bloomberg terminals’ chat groups with names such as ”The Cartel,” “The Mafia” and “The Bandits’ Club,” where bank traders allegedly shared information with their supposed competitors, allowing them to execute their own trades before filling client orders and sought to manipulate the benchmark WM/Reuters FX rates.

The joint motion to dismiss the case against them was brought by Bank of America Corp, Barclays Plc , BNP Paribas SA, Citigroup Inc, Credit Suisse Group AG, Deutsche Bank AG, Goldman Sachs Group Inc, HSBC Holdings Plc, JPMorgan Chase & Co, Morgan Stanley, Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc and UBS AG. According to the lawsuit, these dozen banks control 84% of the global market and act as counterparties in 98% of U.S. spot volume.

The defendants claimed in the filing: “Despite their breathtaking scope, the complaints do not plead a single fact about a single instance in which a single defendant engaged in even one concerted act to manipulate any particular currency rate. Nor do they identify a single transaction by a plaintiff or any factual basis for a claim that any plaintiff has been injured by an alleged conspiracy to manipulate benchmark exchange rates.”