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The Manipulation Monitor: A Guide to Financial Market Manipulation Antitrust Litigation

Commentary on Antitrust and Other Competition Law Litigation Relating to the Financial Services Industry.
Posted: May 24, 2019

Four Bank Defendants Dismissed From S.D.N.Y. ForEx Lawsuit

LAW 360 (subscription required) reports that four bank defendants–UBS Group AG, SocGen, RBS PLC, and MUFG Bank, Ltd.–have been dismissed from a pending foreign exchange bid-rigging action in the S.D.N.Y. District Judge Lorna Schofield dismissed UBS Group AG because the complaint did not allege that it had participated in the alleged manipulation activity, and that the plaintiffs had conflated it...

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Posted in Financial Competition Litigation, Foreign Exchange Market Manipulation
Posted: May 17, 2019

E.U. Hands Down $1.2 Billion Fine For Rigging ForEx Markets

Today, CNBC, Reuters, and the E.U. itself itself are reporting that the European Commission has fined Barclays, Citigroup, J.P. Morgan, MUFG, and Royal Bank of Scotland a total of 1.07 billion Euro ($1.2 billion) for rigging the spot foreign exchange market for 11 currencies. The bid-rigging was carried out by traders from the various banks communicating with each other over...

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Posted in Financial Competition Litigation, Foreign Exchange Market Manipulation
Posted: April 11, 2019

The VIX is Fixed?! Plaintiffs Think Their Charges Should Stick

We’re back for another installment of the most-fun-to-name series of posts the Manipulation Monitor has to offer. Last time around, we reviewed Defendant’s valiant efforts to rid the world – or, at least, the Northern District of Illinois – of the scourge of VIX-related claims. Plaintiffs have some comments, of course, so we’re back again with VIX-the-fifth. Post the first...

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Posted in Financial Competition Litigation, Commodities Manipulation
Posted: March 26, 2019

Lawsuits Filed Over Eurozone Bond Bid-Ask Rigging

On March 22, 2019, the Ohio Carpenters’ Pension Fund filed a proposed antitrust class action in the Southern District of New York. The complaint alleges that Bank of America and NatWest (f/k/a RBS) conspired to rig the bid-ask spreads of Eurozone government bonds between 2007 and 2012. The complaint specifically alleges that the defendants were (nominally) competing “primary dealers” for...

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Posted in Financial Competition Litigation, Government Bond Market Manipulation
Posted: March 19, 2019

Forthcoming Mandamus Petition in Gold Fixing Antitrust Case Puts Discoverability of Plaintiffs’ Statistical Market Analyses at Center Stage

When the emergence of big data and supercomputing drew complex statistical analyses—event studies, regression analyses, ANOVA methods and the like—out of the classroom and into the marketplace, those paying attention knew that courtrooms would not be far behind. Today, these complex statistical analyses give market-watchers (potential Plaintiffs) unparalleled ability to identify unnatural market movement and ferret out manipulation. When incorporated...

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Posted in Financial Competition Litigation, Commodities Manipulation
Posted: March 12, 2019

SOS to GSEs: Your Bonds are A Beautiful Mess

Annnd we’re back. Have you missed the scintillating stories of mischief and manipulation spun by your favourite lawyers-turned-bloggers? If the answer to that isn’t a resounding yes, I’ll just assume you’re new around here. You know what else is new to these parts? Government-Sponsored Enterprises! Yes friends, this is the start of a brand-new miniseries here on the Manipulation Monitor....

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Posted in Financial Competition Litigation, Government Bond Market Manipulation
Posted: March 1, 2019

Antitrust Suit Alleges That Major Banks Colluded To Manipulate Prices Of Fannie & Freddie Bonds Between 2009 And 2014

On February 22, 2019, the City of Birmingham’s pension fund and various other benefit funds filed a proposed antitrust class action in the Southern District of New York. The complaint alleges that a number of major banks–Bank of America, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Credit Suisse, Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and Deutsche Bank, among others–conspired to manipulate the secondary market for...

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Posted in Financial Competition Litigation, Government Bond Market Manipulation
Posted: February 25, 2019

City of Philadelphia Files Anti-Trust Class Action Arising From Whistleblower Allegations That Banks Fixed VRDO Interest Rates

Last week, the City of Philadelphia filed a proposed antitrust class action in the Southern District of New York. The action alleges that a number of major banks–Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, Citibank, Goldman Sachs etc.–conspired to artificially inflate the interest rates for a type of tax-free municipal bonds called Variable Rate Demand Obligations (VRDOs). The complaint alleges that the...

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Posted in Financial Competition Litigation, Government Bond Market Manipulation
Posted: February 11, 2019

New LIBOR Suit Alleging Rate-Rigging Continued After 2014 Not Added to Existing LIBOR MDL

Law360 reports that the Southern District of New York has refused to join a new LIBOR class action filed by Putnam Bank with the ongoing LIBOR multi-district litigation that is being overseen by Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald. The existing LIBOR MDL concerns rate-rigging from 2007 to 2009/2010, when the British Bankers’ Association (BBA) was the LIBOR administrator, whereas Putnam’s action...

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Posted in Financial Competition Litigation, Benchmark Rate Manipulation
Posted: January 22, 2019

The VIX is Fixed?! Plaintiffs Would Like Some Discovery Real Quick

With apologies for the substandard rhyming in this title, this is a quick post to update you on the current status of the VIX Plaintiff’s motion for expedited discovery. On Friday January 11th, a minute entry on the docket showed that Plaintiff’s motion was denied, without prejudice, with an order with further court dates to be issued once the motion...

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Posted in In re: Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index Manipulation Antitrust Litigation, Financial Competition Litigation, Market Index Manipulation