Goldman Sachs is set to be the next major financial institution to settle its part in a class action lawsuit of private investors against banks for their part in manipulating FX currency rates. The lawsuit followed investigations by global regulators into manipulation of FX prices which culminated in over $3 billion in fines issued by the FCA, CFTC , and FINMA in November 2014. Despite the regulatory fines, banks have found themselves also targeted in civil cases with private investors who have claimed that the manipulation of FX prices across the firms has affected their order executions negatively.
According to a source to MarketWatch, Goldman Sachs is expected to be nearing a $129.5 million Settlement in the lawsuit. Their settlement would come on the heels of a $180 million payment by Bank of America in April. Earlier in the year, JPMorgan and UBS had also arranged to settle, paying $99.5 million and $135 million respectively. The case had been led by attorneys Scott and Scott and Hausfeld LLP. In Goldman Sach’s case, the firm is expected to come to a solution in the next few weeks.
With regulators having already issued fines, banks may feel hard pressed to settle than go to court to battle against the claims against them. It will be interesting to see whether any of the other banks named in the lawsuit which also include Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank will take the case to court in replace of settling with the litigants.
