Hausfeld, the U.S. based law firm, recently filed an action against some prominent financial institutions over accusations of rigging foreign exchange.
This is touted to be one of the most high-profile actions of London class taking down its counterpart Scott & Scott.
The lawsuit is headed by Phil Evans, the inquiry chairman of Market authorities and ex Competition. Phil is on the lookout for lacerations from Citibank, The Royal Bank of Scotland, UBS, JP Morgan, MUFG Bank, and Barclays for their part in cartels of forex spot trading through 2007 to 2013.
The European Commission fined these banks more than 1 billion euros for their wrongdoing. But that should not be where this ends,
Evans said in a statement that launched the new class action, called FX Claim UK.
The fines do not go to those affected by the cartels. Through this action, we want to hold the banks accountable for their actions and secure compensation for affected customers.
The banks in anticipation, namely JPMorgan, RBS, Citigroup, MUFG, as well as UBS, refused to say anything in response. Foreign exchange acknowledged as London’s crown jewel in the financial sector has approximately 43% of forex market trade worth $6.6 trillion a day.
This lured lawyers, who struggled for a spot since the initial opt-out class actions were inaugurated by the Consumer Rights Act regarding the EU or UK competition law breach in the year 2015.
In these cases, a defined group of members will be liable for a legal action except if they choose to opt-out. On the other hand, cross border claimants have to register actively.
Scott & Scott and Hausfeld earlier led a U.S. action against 15 financial institutions, obtaining 2.3 billion dollars in the claim for Americans. Thereafter some top banking institutions reimbursed over $11 billion fine to resolve the allegations on U.S. and European legislations where rigging was alleged.
Banks are now confronting one more high profile class in England after having paid over £1 billion in fine over cartels known as “Essex Express” and “Three Way Banana Split.”
The class action in the discussion was filed four months after its rival underwent a possible ’carriage dispute,’ during the time when a court was rested with the responsibility to find the prevailing group. Marcus Smith, the Judge on duty last month, said that only one representative could be there for a class act like that.
The initial lawsuit was known as UK FX Cartel Claim and is being headed by the ex-head of the Pensions Regulator, Michael O’Higgins. It was funded by Therium, the litigation funder. FX Claim from the UK is sponsored by the Bench Walk Advisors. In case the claim fails, each of them holds legit insurance cover for after-event.