City of Philadelphia Files Anti-Trust Class Action Arising From Whistleblower Allegations That Banks Fixed VRDO Interest Rates
Government Bond Market Manipulation / Manipulation Monitor

City of Philadelphia Files Anti-Trust Class Action Arising From Whistleblower Allegations That Banks Fixed VRDO Interest Rates

Last week, the City of Philadelphia filed a proposed antitrust class action in the Southern District of New York. The action alleges that a number of major banks–Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, Citibank, Goldman Sachs etc.–conspired to artificially inflate the interest rates for a type of tax-free municipal bonds called Variable Rate Demand Obligations (VRDOs). Continue reading City of Philadelphia Files Anti-Trust Class Action Arising From Whistleblower Allegations That Banks Fixed VRDO Interest Rates

New LIBOR Suit Alleging Rate-Rigging Continued After 2014 Not Added to Existing LIBOR MDL
Benchmark Rate Manipulation / Manipulation Monitor

New LIBOR Suit Alleging Rate-Rigging Continued After 2014 Not Added to Existing LIBOR MDL

Law360 reports that the Southern District of New York has refused to join a new LIBOR class action filed by Putnam Bank with the ongoing LIBOR multi-district litigation that is being overseen by Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald. The existing LIBOR MDL concerns rate-rigging from 2007 to 2009/2010, when the British Bankers’ Association (BBA) was the LIBOR administrator, whereas Putnam’s action concerns rate-rigging from 2014 onward, after Intercontinental Exchange Inc., which owns the New York Stock Exchange, had replaced BBA as LIBOR administrator by. Putnam’s claims have been widely reported in the British press. Continue reading New LIBOR Suit Alleging Rate-Rigging Continued After 2014 Not Added to Existing LIBOR MDL