UBS and Royal Bank of Scotland are among five banks named in a class action lawsuit in Australia relating to collusion on foreign-exchange strategies.
Australian law firm Maurice Blackburn on Monday filed a class-action lawsuit against the five international investment banks, accusing them of colluding to rig foreign exchange rates during 2008-2013 so they can profit. They are UBS, Barclays Bank, Citigroup, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and J.P. Morgan.
The five banks are accused of colluding to increase the price clients paid for certain investment products in order to fix exchange rates at more costly levels, according to Australian court documents. «Australian businesses and investors, particularly medium to large importers, exporters, institutional investors and businesses with operations overseas, have been affected by the distortion of the FX market by these banks,» said Maurice Blackburn principal lawyer Kimi Nishimura in a statement.
Chatrooms Used
The Australian law firm alleged that traders from the banks shared confidential information about their clients and their orders on internet chatrooms instead of competing with each other. According to court documents, names given by the traders to those chatrooms included «The Cartel», «The Mafia» and «A CoOperative».
J.P. Morgan declined to comment, while spokespeople for UBS, Citi, and RBS acknowledged receiving media inquiries but were not immediately available for comment, according to a Reuters report.
Banks Fined
The amount being sought for this case is unknown at the time of this report but a similar claim in the U.S. including some named in the Australian claim had resulted in a $2.3 billion settlement.
Earlier this month, EU's anti-trust regulators were investigating currency market rigging and were set to fine seven banks, several of which are also accused in the case launched in Australia.
