Switzerland: UBS settles currency-rigging claims for $135 million

Switzerland’s largest bank, UBS, has agreed to pay $135 million to settle claims that it helped rig currency-exchange rates in a scheme involving some of the world’s biggest banks.

The settlement announced Friday by the lead law firm in the case resolves a class-action lawsuit against UBS by pension funds and other investors that engaged in foreign currency transactions with the bank. The investors also sued 11 other major banks, accusing them of colluding together to fatten their profits by manipulating currency rates.

Authorities in the US, Great Britain and Switzerland have put banks’ conduct in the multitrillion-dollar currency market under scrutiny. UBS, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and two other banks were recently fined a total $4.3 billion in civil settlements with regulators in those countries. The U.S. Justice Department is conducting its own criminal investigation of foreign-exchange rate setting.

Full Content: CNBC News

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