Citibank NA has urged a New York federal court to reject two settlement class members’ bid to modify a $2 billion settlement over alleged foreign exchange (forex) market manipulation. The bank contends the settlement properly releases claims involving undisclosed transaction charges. In a letter to U.S. District Judge Lorna G. Schofield, Citibank said that an objection filed by traders Eduardo and Gervasio Negrete in April improperly seeks to exclude claims related to undisclosed markups the bank charged for transactions. Not only are the claims appropriately covered by the forex manipulation settlement, but also the objection has come too early, Citibank said.
Citibank is part of a $2 billion agreement between investors and nine banks that was preliminarily approved in December to settle allegations that they engaged in a broad scheme to rig the $6 trillion foreign exchange market. JPMorgan Chase & Co., Barclays PLC, HSBC Holdings PLC, The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC, Goldman Sachs Group Inc., BNP Paribas SA,UBS AG and Bank of America Corp. are also parties to the settlement. Citibank agreed to pay about $400 million in the settlement.
The forex manipulation settlement has also drawn the ire of some employee retirement funds contending their claims under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) were not properly addressed in the settlement. Plan participants have filed an amended complaint including ERISA claims; however, the banks have said the settlement deals with the same underlying actions as those claims as well. Both the antitrust case and the markup case are in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
Source: Law360.com
