Canada’s 6 biggest banks accused of rigging rate in U.S.lawsuit

author-image
Meeshika Sharma
New Update
NULL

A Colorado-based pension fund accused Canada’s six biggest banks and three foreign lenders of conspiring to manipulate a Canadian interest rate benchmark to boost “illegitimate profits” on derivatives trades for several years until 2014.

The Fire & Police Pension Association of Colorado alleged in a New York court filing that the banks sought to boost their earnings from derivatives trades by manipulating the Canadian Dealer Offered Rate, or CDOR, a benchmark lending rate.

The alleged violations, including conspiracy under the U.S. Sherman Act and manipulation of the Commodity Exchange Act, took place for almost seven years, according to the filing.

The proposed class-action dispute names Toronto-Dominion Bank, Royal Bank of Canada, Bank of Nova Scotia, Bank of Montreal, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and National Bank of Canada, as well as HSBC Holdings Plc, Bank of America Corp. and Deutsche Bank AG. All the banks declined to comment on the matter.

Advertisment

The fund, which manages about US$4.66 billion, claims banks “reduced the amount of interest owed,” resulting in investors paying more or receiving less than the amount generated through trading derivatives based on CDOR. The pension fund said it made US$1.2 billion in CDOR-based derivatives trades over the period.

CDOR is the interest rate benchmark used to set terms on short-term loans of less than a year. It’s set by Thomson Reuters each day based on submissions from the banks and used to determine rates on bankers’ acceptance contracts.

The banks held on average more than US$1 trillion in CDOR-based swap contracts with U.S. counterparties during the period covered by the class-action suit, according to the filing.

Representatives for the Canadian Bankers Association, the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada and the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions declined to comment.

Royal Bank was among 16 global banks sued by the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. in 2014 for its role in manipulating the London interbank offered rate from 2007 to 2011. Royal Bank of Canada continues to face litigation risk from Libor-rigging investigations, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.

canada-news latest-canada-news
Advertisment