LONDON, Dec 18 (Reuters) - Major banks including JPMorgan, UBSS> and Citigroup on Thursday won their bid to block a 2.7 billion-pound ($3.6 billion) mass lawsuit over alleged foreign exchange rigging.
Banks Successfully Block $3.6 Billion Forex UK Lawsuit
LONDON, Dec 18 (Reuters) - Major banks including JPMorgan, UBSS> and Citigroup on Thursday won their bid to block a 2.7 billion-pound ($3.6 billion) mass lawsuit over alleged foreign exchange rigging.
Phillip Evans, a former inquiry chair at Britain's Competition Markets Authority, was leading the case on behalf of thousands of asset managers, pension funds and financial institutions.
The lawsuit, which was also brought against Barclays, MUFG and Natwest, is based on findings made by the European Commission, which fined banks more than 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) in 2019.
The European Commission found the banks had rigged the multitrillion-dollar foreign exchange market in two separate cartels between 2007 and 2013.
Some of the world's biggest investment banks have paid more than a combined $11 billion in fines to settle U.S., British and European regulatory allegations that traders manipulated currency rates for years.
Evans' case was initially blocked in 2022 by the Competition Appeal Tribunal, before it was revived by the Court of Appeal the following year.
The banks appealed to the United Kingdom's Supreme Court, which reinstated the Competition Appeal Tribunal's decision to refuse to certify the case on an opt-out basis.
($1 = 0.7493 pounds)
(Reporting by Sam Tobin; editing by William James)
