A PYMNTS Company

US: HSBC agrees to pay US$100m to settle US antitrust suit

By  |  April 2, 2018

HSBC has agreed to pay US$100 million to settle an antitrust lawsuit by over-the-counter investors in the United States, including the city of Baltimoreand Yale University, who claimed they were harmed when they bought securities tied to rigged Libor.

    Get the Full Story

    Complete the form to unlock this article and enjoy unlimited free access to all PYMNTS content — no additional logins required.

    yesSubscribe to our daily newsletter, PYMNTS Today.

    By completing this form, you agree to receive marketing communications from PYMNTS and to the sharing of your information with our sponsor, if applicable, in accordance with our Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions.

    The settlement will need to be approved by a federal judge in Manhattan.

    The investors said in their request for preliminary approval on Thursday, March 29, that the deal was substantially fair given the hurdles they would face to get a favorable jury verdict in the six-year-old case that’s currently before an appeals court.

    “This litigation presents the court, the parties, and eventually, a jury, with the task of understanding extremely complex derivative instruments in an opaque, unregulated market,” according to the court filing. “This makes proving liability and damages, both of which would have required the assistance of experts, all the more risky.”

    About a dozen firms have paid almost US$9 billion in fines to resolve government investigations around the world into rigging of the key benchmark. Libor is used to set interest rates every business day for myriad financial instruments.

    Full Content: Bloomberg

    Want more news? Subscribe to CPI’s free daily newsletter for more headlines and updates on antitrust developments around the world.