Ontario Court Approves Settlement With 4 Banks in FX Market Class Action

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FX MARKET SETTLEMENT OVERVIEW:

• WHO: Toronto Dominion, Royal Bank of Canada, Credit Suisse Group, and Deutsche Bank.
• WHY: Plaintiffs in a 2015 class action lawsuit alleged dozens of banks and other financial institutions conspired to control the foreign exchange market between 2003 and 2013.
• WHERE: Ontario Superior Court of Justice

An Ontario Superior Court of Justice judge has approved a settlement against four bank defendants in a class action lawsuit alleging the banks worked together to fix prices in the futures exchange market, or FX market.

Plaintiffs in a 2015 class action lawsuit alleged dozens of banks and other financial institutions conspired to control the FX market between 2003 and 2013.

The plaintiffs claimed the banks worked together via the use of multiple chat rooms with names such as “The Cartel,” “The Bandits’ Club,” and “The Mafia,” according to court documents, communicating directly to coordinate the fixing of spot prices, control and manipulation of FX benchmark rates, and exchange confidential customer information in order to trigger client stop loss orders and limit orders.

The settling bank groups in this agreement are Toronto Dominion, Royal Bank of Canada, Credit Suisse Group, and Deutsche Bank, which have agreed to the following settlement amounts:

• TD Bank: $4.5 million
• RBC: $6.556 million
  Credit Suisse: $5.56 million
• Deutsche Bank: $7.22 million (U.S.)

Each amount will be reduced by $175,000 (or $144,000 U.S. for Deutsche Bank) previously paid toward the cost of a contested certification motion.

The settling defendants have also been subject to findings and millions in fines.

Fourteen other bank groups were named as defendants in the class action lawsuit and have agreed to the following settlement amounts:

• UBS: $4.95 million
• BNP: $4.5 million
• Bank of America: $6.5 million
• Goldman Sachs: $6.75 million
• JP Morgan Chase: $11.5 million
• Citigroup: $21 million
• Barclays: $19,677,205.88
• HSBC: $15.5 million
• Royal Bank of Scotland: $13.22 million
• Standard Chartered: $900,000
• Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ: $450,000
• Société Générale: $1.8 million
• Morgan Stanley: $2.3 million (U.S.)
• Bank of Montreal: $250,000

The distribution of previous settlement amounts is in administration, and payments are expected to be sent out in mid-2022.

The recently approved settlements resolve the case “in its entirety,” the Court wrote.

“With the previous settlements, the settlements in this class action against some of the world’s largest banks total $135 million.”

Have you participated in foreign currency market since 2003? What do you think of the FX market price-fixing conspiracy class action settlement? Tell us in the comment section below.

The lead plaintiffs and Class Members are represented by Koskie Minsky LLP, Sotos LLP, and Siskinds LLP.

The FX Market Price-Fixing Conspiracy Class Action Lawsuit is Mancinelli, et al. v. Royal Bank of Canada, et al., Case No. CV-15-536174-00CP in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, Canada.

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