Goldman Sachs to settle U.S. rate-rigging lawsuit for $56.5 mln
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Goldman Sachs Group Inc
has agreed to pay $56.5 million (45.22 million pounds) to resolve a
U.S. class action lawsuit accusing it and other banks of rigging an
interest rate benchmark used in the $553 trillion derivatives market.
The proposed settlement was disclosed in papers filed in
federal court in Manhattan on Friday. It came after seven other banks
agreed in May to pay a combined $324 million to resolve the litigation.
As part of the deal, Goldman has also agreed to provide
lawyers for the plaintiffs evidence including transaction data,
documents and witness interviews, which could be used in litigations
against the remaining banks, the court papers said.
Neither a spokesman for Goldman Sachs nor a lawyer for the
plaintiffs immediately responded to a request for comment late on
Friday.
The case is one of many pending in Manhattan federal court
accusing banks of conspiring to rig rate benchmarks, securities prices
or commodities prices.
In the lawsuit, several pension funds and municipalities
accused 14 banks, including those that settled, of conspiring to rig the
“ISDAfix” benchmark for their own gain from at least 2009 to 2012.
Companies and investors use ISDAfix to price swaps transactions, commercial real estate mortgages and structured debt securities.
The lawsuit accused the banks of executing rapid trades
before the rate was set each day. It said the banks also caused UK
brokerage ICAP Plc to delay trades until they moved ISDAfix where they wanted, and post rates that did not reflect market activity.
U.S. and European regulators have also examined whether ISDAfix
was set properly. The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission has
secured settlements of $115 million with Barclays Plc in May 2015 and
$250 million with Citigroup Inc in May 2016.
To date in the class action, seven other banks have settled, including JPMorgan Chase & Co, Bank of America Corp, Credit Suisse Group AG and Deutsche Bank AG.
The remaining defendants are BNP Paribas SA, HSBC Holdings Plc, Morgan Stanley, Nomura Holdings Inc<8604.T>, UBS AG , Wells Fargo & Co and ICAP, lawyers for the plaintiffs said.
The case is Alaska Electrical Pension Fund et al v. Bank of
America Corp et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York,
No. 14-07126.
If you want to more information regarding the Stock cash tips, Stock tips, Nifty tips, Commodity tips, equity tips call @8370098946 or fill form http://equityresearchlab.com/Freetrial.php please drop your number for profit calls...?
No comments:
Post a Comment