$86M Bond Rigging Settlement Reached by Major Global Banks

The Mexican subsidiaries of six major global banks have agreed to pay $86.4 million to settle claims they rigged the market for Mexican government bonds, known as MGBs. The preliminary settlement was filed in Manhattan federal court and closes out an antitrust lawsuit that dragged on for more than eight years.

The banks involved include Bank of America, Banco Santander, BBVA, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, and HSBC, none of which admitted wrongdoing. According to the lawsuit, the banks' Mexican subsidiaries fixed prices and coordinated allocations of MGBs from January 1, 2006 through April 19, 2017.

Plaintiffs presented evidence that included chatroom transcripts showing patterns of coordination among traders at the various banks. The conversations revealed the banks suppressing prices when buying MGBs while inflating them during sales.