By Sylvia Kulagowski,  Legal Administrative Specialist

CASE BACKGROUND

This case concerns the price fixing and manipulation of over-the-counter financial derivative and non-derivative U.S. Dollar LIBOR instruments by Barclays and the Non-Settling Defendants. According to the Notice of Class Action Settlement:

Banks on the U.S. Dollar panel (and their affiliates) around the world were sued by a group of their counterparties (“Plaintiffs”) who claim that the banks manipulated the U.S. Dollar LIBOR rate during the financial crisis, artificially lowering the rate for their own benefit. Plaintiffs claim that Barclays and other banks manipulated the U.S. Dollar LIBOR rate, and that, as a result, purchasers did not receive as much interest payments for their U.S. Dollar LIBOR-based instruments from the banks as they should have.

Barclays and the Non-Settling Defendants deny these claims and maintain they did nothing wrong.

Plaintiffs in the OTC Action allege that defendants : (1) violated the Sherman Act by conspiring to manipulate the U.S. Dollar LIBOR rate; (2) breached the covenant of good faith and fair dealing by manipulating the U.S. Dollar LIBOR rate; (3) were unjustly enriched as a result of its manipulative acts in connection with the U.S. Dollar LIBOR.

WHAT DEFENDANTS HAVE SETTLED?

Barclays: A Settlement has been reached with Barclays Bank. The Settlement does not impact claims in the lawsuit against the Non-Settling Defendants, and the lawsuit against them is still ongoing.

Citigroup: On August 7, 2017, a settlement agreement has been reached with Citigroup on August 7th, 2017 totaling an additional $130 million. Citigroup is the second bank to settle. The claims process for this settlement may be separate from the Barclays settlement. 

• Click here to read more about Citigroup’s deal (subscription may be required).

WHAT DEFENDANTS HAVE NOT SETTLED?

The plaintiffs in this litigation have yet to resolve related allegations against several other defendants including:

• Bank of America Corp.
• Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd.
• Credit Suisse Group AG
• Deutsche Bank AG
• HSBC Holdings plc
• JPMorgan Chase & Co.
• Royal Bank of Canada
• UBS AG

DETERMINING ELIGIBILITY

You may have already received a Notice and Claim Form of Class Action Settlement for this case from the Claims Administrator. Receipt of these documents is a strong indicator that you fit the Settlement Class definition and that you are eligible to recover.

Even if you did not receive Notice, you may still be eligible. For FRT Antitrust clients, we’ll be providing a detailed querying memo to help you pull the data you need for this non-securities Antitrust case. Please contact your FRT representation for more information.

COVERED INSTRUMENTS

The Settlement relates to U.S. Dollar LIBOR-Based Instruments, which are instruments that include any term, provision, and obligation or right to be paid or to receive interest based upon the U.S. Dollar LIBOR rate.” These include but are not limited to:

• asset swaps
• collateralized debt obligations (CDO’s)
• credit default swaps (CDS’s)
• forward rate agreements (FRA’s)
• inflation swaps
• total return swaps
• options
• floating rate notes

Only U.S. Dollar LIBOR-based instruments that were sold in over-the-counter transactions are included in the Settlement.

NEXT STEPS

FRT will continue to monitor for other settling defendants and key dates that impact this Antitrust case.

• Coming Soon: For FRT Antitrust clients, we’ll be providing a detailed querying memo in the coming weeks to help you pull the data you need for this non-securities Antitrust case. Please contact your FRT representation for more information
• November 21, 2017: Data should be provided to FRT before November 21, 2017.
• December 21, 2017: Claim Filing Deadline

LEARN MORE

For more information on this case, or to learn more about the FRT Antitrust program, please contact us at learnmore@frtservices.com.

About FRT

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