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US: Banks lose bid to escape forex antitrust Class Action

By  |  January 29, 2015

Banks including Barclays Plc, Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Deutsche Bank AG must face a lawsuit by US investors who accuse them of conspiring to manipulate rates for determining foreign-exchange prices, a federal judge ruled.

U.S. District Judge Lorna Schofield in Manhattan Wednesday rejected a bid by the banks for dismissal of suits filed by US plaintiffs, including investment funds, pension plans and hedge funds. They accuse the banks of violating US antitrust law by fixing the WM/Reuters rates, an industrywide standard used in determining closing prices in the $5.3 trillion-a-day foreign exchange market.

Schofield granted the banks’ request to dismiss related suits filed on behalf of traders in foreign currency in South Korea and Norway, ruling there wasn’t a sufficient connection to New York,

Full Content: Reuters

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