NEW YORK, Aug 17 (Reuters) – Mexican banking affiliates of Bank of America, Banco Santander, BBVA, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank and HSBC agreed to pay $86.4 million to settle a long-running antitrust lawsuit by investors who accused them of rigging the market for Mexican government bonds.
• A preliminary settlement filed late Friday in Manhattan federal court would resolve all remaining claims in the eight-year-old case, pending a judge’s approval.
• The total payout prior to legal fees would be $107.1 million, including a combined $20.7 million of settlements by Barclays and JPMorgan Chase in 2020.
• Citing evidence including chatroom transcripts, investors led by several pension funds accused the banks of conspiring from January 1, 2006 to April 19, 2017 to fix prices and allocations of Mexican government bonds, including by suppressing prices of bonds they buy and increasing prices of bonds they sell.
• The banks denied wrongdoing in agreeing to settle.
• Lawyers for the investors may seek up to one-third of the payout, or $28.8 million, in fees.
• The case is part of more than a decade of litigation in Manhattan accusing big banks of colluding to rig interest rates, U.S. Treasuries, other bonds, currencies and commodities.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York. Editing by Mark Potter)
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