The Bank of New York (BNY) Mellon Corporation (NYSE: BK) has reached a point of financial reconciliation with US authorities, agreeing to pay a total of $714 million for FX-related transgressions, according to a BNY statement.
Less than one month ago, reports surfaced that the bank was holding talks with legal authorities in the United States in relation to the currency markets, including several high level cases with state pension funds as FX Execution rates were questioned.
BNY Mellon reached settlement agreements with a respective host of US authorities, including the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), the New York Attorney General (NYAG), the U.S. Department of Labor, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and private customer class actions.
In all, the settlements total $714 million, with the DOJ and NYAG each receiving $167.5 million respectively. Moreover, the Department of Labor will receive $14 million and the Securities and Exchange Commission, with which BNY Mellon has reached a settlement in principle, will receive $30 million. Finally, BNY Mellon agreed to reconcile $335 million to settle the customer class action litigation.
Overall, these financial settlements, pending respective approval, will fully settle the lawsuits and enforcement matters pursued by each party relating to certain of the standing instruction FX services that BNY Mellon provided to its custody clients.
According to a recent BNY Mellon statement regarding the resolution of outstanding fines against the company, "We are pleased to put these legacy FX matters behind us, which is in the best interest of our company and our constituents. We continue to improve our product offerings to ensure they are meeting client demand and positioning clients to succeed in an increasingly complex financial environment.”
