Lawyers Defer Lawsuits against Commercial Banks

Legal counsels of investor, who filed an anti-trust case against 12 major banks of manipulating prices in the FOREX market, consented to postpone proceedings because of a criminal investigation being conducted by the United States Department of Justice. The department filed a letter before the Manhattan federal court and disclosed that petitioners agreed to a deferment of six weeks with hardly any exceptions on evidences and document swaps.

The postponement was announced as probes (including one to be done by a federal grand jury) whether banks fixed currency markets for over one year will be made.

Banks including JP Morgan Chase, Royal Bank of Scotland Group, Citigroup Incorporated and UBS AG confirmed investigations by US authorities.

A DOJ spokesperson said the investigation has been ongoing but gave no other details.

JP Morgan Chase was the first bank to agree to a settlement last January paid a total of $99.5 million. Investors insisted private banks obstructed competition by conniving to influence WM and Reuters Closing Spot Rates in emails, chat rooms and instant messaging.

The other accused parties are the Bank of America, Barclays, BNP Paribas SA, Credit Suisse Group, Deutsche Bank AG, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, Morgan Stanley, and RBS.

At the start of 2015, District Judge Lorna Schofield refused an attempt by these banking institutions to set aside the case due to lack of evidence in connection with the alleged collusion.

Part of the agreement said that plaintiffs can still get hold of transaction data and restricted information from the banks' attorneys

. The first hearing has been set this coming March 26.