The major Swiss bank receives welcome news after a US jury finds that it did not conspire with other global banks to rig prices in the foreign exchange market.
Switzerland's second-largest bank did not conspire with other global lenders to rig FX market prices between 2007 and 2013, according to a «Reuters» report citing a US jury verdict.
«[Credit Suisse is] extremely pleased that the jury agreed with us that plaintiffs' case had no merit,» a spokesperson for the bank said.
Extended Deliberation
The jury reached the verdict after seven hours of deliberations that included the review of testimony and transcripts from a variety of sources, including chat rooms that had names such as «The Cartel». They found that Credit Suisse was not involved even though there had been a conspiracy to rig FX markets.
The prosecutors had argued that Credit Suisse’s participation in more than 100 chat rooms while sharing non-public information about spreads was evidence it was involved in the conspiracy. But defense lawyers successfully maintained that the bank's infrequent communication and participation in the chat rooms did not influence markets. Moreover, there was no evidence the bank acted on the chats, noting that many of them discussed different currency pairings than those that were part of the conspiracy involving the other global lenders, clearly indicating that the bank did not participate.
Settlements and Fines
Credit Suisse is the last banking industry defendant in the class action lawsuit. Previous to this, 15 other banks reached settlements totaling more than $2.3 billion in fines. Several banks also paid over $10 billion in fines from international regulatory probes.
In July, Credit Suisse settled with some investors, including Blackrock and Allianz SE’s Pimco, which had opted out of the class action litigation, but the terms of the agreement were not disclosed then.
