13 banks settle Singapore interest rate case for $124 million

Thirteen banks have agreed to pay $91 million (S$124 million) to resolve civil antitrust claims that they participated in a conspiracy to rig benchmark Singapore interest rates, adding to a settlement with six other financial institutions and pushing the amount of the total deal to more than $155 million.

Plaintiffs' lawyers representing investment funds that sued the banks said in the latest proposed settlement on May 27 that banks including Bank of America NA, Barclays Bank Plc, BNP Paribas SA and UBS AG had agreed to resolve claims.

Earlier settling defendants included Credit Suisse AG, Deutsche Bank AG, The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp Ltd, ING Bank NV, Citibank NA and JPMorgan Chase & Co.

The complaint filed in Manhattan federal court in 2016 accused defendant banks of rigging the Singapore Interbank Offered Rate (SIBOR) and Singapore Swap Offered Rate. The SIBOR is widely used for pricing banking products. The proposed class includes buyers and sellers of SIBOR derivatives.

Representatives from the banks on Tuesday either declined to comment or did not immediately return messages asking for comment.

The banks have denied any liability.

Lawyers for Bank of America, Barclays, BNP Paribas and UBS did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment on Tuesday (May 31).

Vincent Briganti of Lowey Dannenberg, representing the plaintiffs, on Tuesday, did not immediately return a message seeking comment.

"Representative plaintiffs have used every available resource to ensure that these negotiated settlements are more than fair," Dannenberg told US District Judge Alvin Hellerstein in a court filing.

Dannenberg said the proposed settlements represent "28 per cent to 43 per cent of total class-wide damages, assuming representative plaintiffs successfully litigated this case through trial."

The plaintiffs' lawyers said they plan to seek up to one-third of the total settlement for legal fees, or about $51.8 million.

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The case is Fund Liquidation Holdings LLC v. Citibank NA, US District Court for the Southern District of New York, No. 1:16-cv-05263-AKH.