Why are UK investors suing Barclays, RBS and three other banks?

[John Naronha]

[Ignatius Bose]

Investors and firms in the UK hurt from the currency manipulation by Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland, JPMorgan, Citigroup, and Switzerland’s UBS have filed a class-action suit of £1bn with the Competition Appeal Tribunal. The investors have also brought in US law firm Scott+Scott, known for specialising in stock market litigations, to represent them. Earlier, in a US class action suit, the law firm secured more than $2.3bn in compensation from Barclays, Deutsche Bank, RBS, and UBS. The class-action suit was filed under the new UK law that came into force in 2015 where identical claimants would be included under the same claim, thereby reducing litigation costs while they share damages based on the losses suffered individually. The claim, led by the former chair of the Pensions Regulator Michael O’Higgins, seeks compensation from the banking cartel on behalf of pension funds and corporates which suffered millions of pounds in losses from the currency rigging by the five banks. According to O’Higgins, the claim will depend on the number of FX trades carried out by the banks in their UK operations and is likely to extend beyond £1bn.