LONDON (Reuters) -A proposed 2.7 billion pound ($3.5 billion) mass lawsuit against major banks including JPMorgan and Citigroup over alleged foreign exchange rigging was revived by a London court on Tuesday.
The case was originally brought by Phillip Evans, a former inquiry chair at Britain’s Competition Markets Authority, on behalf of thousands of asset managers, pension funds and financial institutions.
Evans brought the case – which was also against UBS, Barclays, NatWest and MUFG – on an opt-out basis, meaning potential claimants will be included in the claim unless they choose to opt out.
The Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) last year ruled the claims could only be brought on an opt-in basis, meaning claimants have to expressly join the case, even though the CAT found that rendered them unviable.
But the Court of Appeal overturned that decision on Tuesday, allowing the case to proceed at the CAT.
Evans’s lawyer, Anthony Maton from law firm Hausfeld, said in a statement: “A judgment of this nature was required for all those UK businesses – big and small – who have suffered loss as a result of the manipulation of the FX markets to achieve restitution.”
JP Morgan, Citi, UBS, Barclays, Natwest and MUFG all declined to comment.
Evans’ case is based on findings made by the European Commission, which fined banks more than 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) in 2019 for rigging the multitrillion-dollar foreign exchange market between 2007 and 2013.
Some of the world’s biggest investment banks have paid more than a combined $11 billion in fines to settle U.S., British and European regulatory allegations that traders manipulated currency rates for years.
(Reporting by Sam TobinEditing by Sarah Young and Mark Potter)
