$182.5 Million Settlement Fee to be paid by JP Morgan & Citigroup


11/26/2018



A group of investment companies had brought in cases against Citigroup and JP Morgan well as a number of other banks, and the two leading banks have been reported to be attempting to settle the for a combined total of $182.5 million.
 
The charges brought against the banks included violation of antitrust laws.
 
It had been alleged that a number of banks which included Citigroup and JP Morgan, had been engaged in wilful manipulation of the European Interbank Offered Rate (Euribor) which is a specific rate of benchmark that is used by companies as a reference point for dealing in euro-denominated financial instruments.
 
The litigation against the involved banks was filed in court by a number of buy-side firms, which included the pension fund the California State Teachers’ Retirement System alleging that between June 2005 and till March of 2011, the banks in connivance had rigged the Euribor rate and had intentionally fixed the prices of the Euribor-based derivatives.
 
According to a report published last week by the global news agency Reuters, in the settlement, any form of wrongdoing in the case was refuted by both JP Morgan and Citigroup. The two banks have agreed to pay up the settlement fees so that they are able to avoid the lengthy legal process and the expenses associated with the litigation as well as costs that they would have to incur because of need to public relations exercises following the case. 

Within the last week, this fine account for the second fine that has been paid by JP Morgan. Earlier in the week, the American investment bank agreed to pay a fine of $7 million by authorities in Australia for allegedly conniving with a number of banks to manipulate the Australian Bank Bill Swap Reference Rate in their favour.
 
Earlier in the year, a &56 million fine was imposed on the bank for allegedly rigging the US Dollar International Swaps and Derivatives Association Fix.
 
Till date, in relation to the Euribor manipulation scandal, near about half a billion dollars have been able to be squeezed out of the concerned banks by the US courts. In June last year, $170 million was paid by Deutsche Bank while $94 million was p aid by Barclays coughed in late 2015.
 
(Source:www.financemagnets.com)