Barclays PLC, Citigroup Inc and five other major banks were sued over allegations they conspired to manipulate WM/Reuters rates used for determining foreign exchange prices.
A Haverhill, Massachusetts, benefit fund filed a complaint on Friday in a Manhattan federal court accusing the banks of violating US antitrust law by fixing the rates. WM/Reuters rates are an industrywide standard used in determining closing prices in the US$5.3 trillion-a-day foreign exchange market, according to the complaint.
“Defendants’ manipulation of WM/Reuters rates affected the pricing of trillions of dollars-worth of financial transactions in the United States, including FX trades and other instruments such as pensions and savings accounts that track global indices,” lawyers for the Haverhill Retirement System said in the filing.
The fund, suing on behalf of all similarly situated investors, alleges the banks violated Section 1 of the Sherman Antitrust Act. The other banks named in the complaint are Credit Suisse Group AG, Deutsche Bank AG, JPMorgan Chase & Co, Royal Bank of Scotland PLC and UBS AG.
Federal investigators have been probing possible manipulation in the foreign exchange market, as well as allegations of rigging of the London interbank offered rate, or LIBOR, an interest rate benchmark. On Wednesday, government-owned mortgage financier Fannie Mae sued nine banks claiming that their manipulation of LIBOR caused about US$800 million of losses on swap contracts and other investments.
WM/Reuters rates are published hourly for 160 currencies and half-hourly for the 21 most-traded. They are the median of all trades in a minute-long period starting 30 seconds before the beginning of each half-hour. Rates for less-widely traded currencies are based on quotes during a two-minute window.
The data are collected and distributed by World Markets Co, a unit of Boston-based State Street Corp and Thomson Reuters Corp.
Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News, competes with Thomson Reuters in providing news and information, as well as currency-trading systems.
UBS spokeswoman Karina Byrne also declined to comment on the lawsuit.
The Zurich-based bank said in a third-quarter earnings report released Tuesday that it is aware US and European authorities, including the US Justice Department, were probing the possibility of manipulation of the foreign exchange business.
“Following an initial media report in June 2013 of widespread irregularities in the foreign exchange markets, we immediately commenced an internal review of our foreign exchange business,” the company said in the report.
UBS said it is cooperating with authorities and has “taken and will take appropriate action with respect to certain personnel as a result of our review, which is ongoing.”
The Eurovision Song Contest has seen a surge in punter interest at the bookmakers, becoming a major betting event, experts said ahead of last night’s giant glamfest in Basel. “Eurovision has quietly become one of the biggest betting events of the year,” said Tomi Huttunen, senior manager of the Online Computer Finland (OCS) betting and casino platform. Betting sites have long been used to gauge which way voters might be leaning ahead of the world’s biggest televised live music event. However, bookmakers highlight a huge increase in engagement in recent years — and this year in particular. “We’ve already passed 2023’s total activity and
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) today announced that his company has selected "Beitou Shilin" in Taipei for its new Taiwan office, called Nvidia Constellation, putting an end to months of speculation. Industry sources have said that the tech giant has been eyeing the Beitou Shilin Science Park as the site of its new overseas headquarters, and speculated that the new headquarters would be built on two plots of land designated as "T17" and "T18," which span 3.89 hectares in the park. "I think it's time for us to reveal one of the largest products we've ever built," Huang said near the
China yesterday announced anti-dumping duties as high as 74.9 percent on imports of polyoxymethylene (POM) copolymers, a type of engineering plastic, from Taiwan, the US, the EU and Japan. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce’s findings conclude a probe launched in May last year, shortly after the US sharply increased tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, computer chips and other imports. POM copolymers can partially replace metals such as copper and zinc, and have various applications, including in auto parts, electronics and medical equipment, the Chinese ministry has said. In January, it said initial investigations had determined that dumping was taking place, and implemented preliminary
Intel Corp yesterday reinforced its determination to strengthen its partnerships with Taiwan’s ecosystem partners including original-electronic-manufacturing (OEM) companies such as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and chipmaker United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電). “Tonight marks a new beginning. We renew our new partnership with Taiwan ecosystem,” Intel new chief executive officer Tan Lip-bu (陳立武) said at a dinner with representatives from the company’s local partners, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the US chip giant’s presence in Taiwan. Tan took the reins at Intel six weeks ago aiming to reform the chipmaker and revive its past glory. This is the first time Tan
RSS