Foreign Exchange Antitrust Litigation
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York
Case No. 13-cv-7789-LGS

Overview

Current Status of Settlements

The Court held a Final Approval Hearing at 4:00 p.m. on May 23, 2018, before the Hon. Lorna G. Schofield, at the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.

On August 6, 2018, Judge Schofield granted Class Plaintiffs’ Motion for Final Approval of the 15 Settlements, the Notice, and the Proposed Plan of Distribution. On August 16, 2018, Judge Schofield awarded Class Counsel reimbursement of their litigation expenses. On November 8, 2018, Judge Schofield awarded Class Counsel attorneys’ fees.

On October 4, 2022, the Court entered an Order approving a Fourth Distribution from the Settlement Fund to certain Authorized Claimants. The list of Authorized Claimants can be found here in the exhibits from the Declaration of Charles Marr in Support of Motion for Fourth Distribution. This follows the prior approvals of the initial, second, and third distributions, for which you can find the lists of Authorized Claimants here in the exhibits from the declarations supporting the motions for each distribution. Claimants who have filed multiple claims will be notified of their eligibility for each claim separately. Therefore, it is possible that Claimants will be notified of additional claim eligibility later and may be paid on those claims in a subsequent distribution. If your claim is accepted and was not included in the initial, second, third, or fourth distribution motions, it will be included in a subsequent distribution motion.

The Claims Administrator is finalizing the remaining claims and resolving outstanding disputes. Once this process concludes, Class Counsel will move for a final distribution of the Settlements and resolution of claimant disputes. The schedule for briefing disputed claims will be posted to the settlement website. Once all disputes are finally resolved, the holdback will be distributed to Authorized Claimants.

IF YOU ENTERED INTO AN FX INSTRUMENT OR FX EXCHANGE-TRADED INSTRUMENT BETWEEN JANUARY 1, 2003 AND DECEMBER 15, 2015, YOU MAY BE AFFECTED BY CLASS ACTION SETTLEMENTS.

PLEASE READ THIS WEBSITE CAREFULLY, AS THE PROPOSED SETTLEMENTS (REFERRED TO AS THE “SETTLEMENTS”) DESCRIBED MAY AFFECT YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS AND PROVIDE YOU POTENTIAL BENEFITS. THIS IS NOT INFORMATION OF A LAWSUIT AGAINST YOU.

Overview

Proposed settlements have been reached in the case captioned “In re Foreign Exchange Benchmark Rates Antitrust Litigation,” Case No. 13-cv-7789, which is a class action pending in the Southern District of New York.

The purpose of this website is to inform you of the pending proposed class action lawsuit (the “Action”) and of the settlements of the Action with the following “Settling Defendants”:

  1. Bank of America Corporation, Bank of America, N.A., and Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated (“Bank of America”);
  2. The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Ltd. (“BTMU”);
  3. Barclays Bank PLC and Barclays Capital Inc. (“Barclays”);
  4. BNP Paribas Group, BNP Paribas North America Inc., BNP Paribas Securities Corp., and BNP Prime Brokerage, Inc. (“BNP Paribas”);
  5. Citigroup Inc., Citibank, N.A., Citicorp, and Citigroup Global Markets Inc. (“Citigroup”);
  6. Deutsche Bank AG and Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. (“Deutsche Bank”);
  7. The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. and Goldman, Sachs & Co. (“Goldman Sachs”);
  8. HSBC Holdings PLC, HSBC Bank PLC, HSBC North America Holdings Inc., HSBC Bank USA, N.A., and HSBC Securities (USA) Inc. (“HSBC”);
  9. JPMorgan Chase & Co. and JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. (“JPMorgan”);
  10. Morgan Stanley, Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, and Morgan Stanley & Co. International PLC (“Morgan Stanley”);
  11. RBC Capital Markets LLC (“RBC”);
  12. The Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC, The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC, and RBS Securities Inc. (“RBS”);
  13. Societe Generale (“Soc Gen”);
  14. Standard Chartered Bank (“Standard Chartered”); and
  15. UBS AG, UBS Group AG, and UBS Securities LLC (“UBS”).

The Action alleges that the Settling Defendants and additional defendants, with whom no settlement has been reached, conspired to fix prices in the foreign exchange (“FX”) market in violation of Sections 1 and 3 of the Sherman Antitrust Act, 15 U.S.C. §§1, 3. The Action also alleges that Defendants engaged in manipulation with respect to the FX market in violation of the Commodity Exchange Act, 7 U.S.C. §§1, et seq. Defendants deny that the allegations made against them in the lawsuit have merit.

The Court has preliminarily approved Settlements with the Settling Defendants. To resolve all Released Claims against all Released Parties, Settling Defendants have agreed to pay a total of $2,310,275,000.

In the Court’s Preliminary Approval Orders, the Court preliminarily approved two Settlement Classes.

First, the Direct Settlement Class is defined as:

All Persons who, between January 1, 2003 and December 15, 2015, entered into an FX Instrument directly with a Defendant, a direct or indirect parent, subsidiary, or division of a Defendant, a Released Party, or co-conspirator where such Persons were either domiciled in the United States or its territories or, if domiciled outside the United States or its territories, transacted FX Instruments in the United States or its territories.

Second, the Exchange-Only Settlement Class is defined as:

All Persons who, between January 1, 2003 and December 15, 2015, entered into FX Exchange-Traded Instruments where such Persons were either domiciled in the United States or its territories or, if domiciled outside the United States or its territories, entered into FX Exchange-Traded Instruments on a U.S. exchange.

If you are a member of one of the Settlement Classes and did not exclude yourself, you may be eligible to share in the Net Settlement Fund. The Court in charge of this case must decide whether to approve the Settlements. Payments will be made if the Court approves the Settlements and, if there are any appeals, after appeals are resolved.

Please see the Class Notice for additional detail. This website will be updated as additional information becomes available. Please check back periodically for important updates regarding the Settlements.


What Are Your Options?

YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS AND OPTIONS IN THIS SETTLEMENT
DO NOTHING You are automatically part of a Settlement Class if you fit one of the Settlement Class descriptions. However, if you did not file a timely claim, you will not receive any payment from the Settlements. You will be bound by past and any future Court rulings, including rulings on the Settlements, and settlement releases.
FILE A CLAIM FORM You may be eligible to share in the Net Settlement Fund if you completed and filed a valid Proof of Claim and Release (“Claim Form”) by no later than May 16, 2018. If you filed a Claim Form, you will remain in the Settlement Class if you are a Class Member. You will be bound by past and any future Court rulings, including rulings on the Settlements, and settlement releases.
EXCLUDE YOURSELF FROM THE SETTLEMENTS If you wish to exclude yourself from the Settlements, you must have submitted a written request by February 7, 2018. If you excluded yourself, you will not be bound by the Settlements and will not be eligible to share in the Net Settlement Fund.
OBJECT TO THE SETTLEMENTS If you wish to object to the Settlements, you must have submitted a written objection to the Claims Administrator by February 7, 2018. The Claims Administrator provided any objections to Class Counsel, who filed them with the Court. You must be and remain within a Settlement Class in order to object.
GO TO THE FAIRNESS HEARING You may have asked the Court for permission to speak at the Fairness Hearing about the Settlements by including such a request in your written objection, which you must have submitted to the Claims Administrator by February 7, 2018. The Claims Administrator provided any requests to Class Counsel, who filed them with the Court. The Fairness Hearing occurred on May 23, 2018, at 4:00 p.m., at the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse, 40 Foley Square, New York, New York 10007.
APPEAR THROUGH AN ATTORNEY You may have entered an appearance through your own counsel at your own expense.