In re: Foreign Exchange Benchmark Rates Antitrust Litigation

An Analysis Group team supported Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP and its client Credit Suisse in their successful defense in a long-running antitrust class action over alleged manipulation of foreign exchange currency markets.

In the matter In re: Foreign Exchange Benchmark Rates Antitrust Litigation, the plaintiffs, including hedge and pension funds, alleged Credit Suisse and 15 other banks agreed to widen the difference between the prices at which they buy and sell currencies (i.e., bid-ask spreads) between 2007 and 2013, in violation of federal antitrust law. Credit Suisse was the sole defendant to proceed to trial after the other banks agreed to settlements.

Managing Principal Divya Mathur testified at the trial on the economics of cartels, and affiliated expert Professor Michael Melvin, Executive Director of the Master of Finance Program at the Rady School of Management at University of California, San Diego, testified about the dynamics of the foreign exchange marketplace and the economics of bid-ask spreads. Their testimony was supported by an Analysis Group team led by Managing Principal Samuel Weglein, Principal Brian Ellman, Vice Presidents Chris Feige and Rebeccah Filsoof, and Manager Hadrien Vasdeboncoeur.

Following an eight-day trial in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan, the jury found that Credit Suisse did not participate in any conspiracy to widen, fix, stabilize, or maintain bid-ask spreads in the forex market.