FAQs – The EGB Claim

The claim is a legal action against Bank of America Corporation, Natixis SA, Nomura Holdings Inc, NatWest Group plc (The Royal Bank Of Scotland Group plc), UBS AG, UniCredit SpA and Portigon Financial Services AG (WestLB AG). All of these banks have been named in the European Commission decision dated 20 May 2021.

The seven investment banks participated in a cartel through a group of traders working on their EGB desks and operating in a closed circle of trust. These traders were in regular contact with each other mainly in multilateral chatrooms on Bloomberg terminals.

In these chatrooms, the relevant traders exchanged commercially sensitive information. They informed and updated each other on their prices and volumes offered in the run-up to the auctions and the prices shown to their customers or to the market in general.

They discussed and provided each other with recurring updates on their bidding strategy in the run-up to the auctions of the Eurozone Member States when issuing Euro-denominated bonds on the primary market, and on trading parameters on the secondary market.

The behaviour of the seven banks violates EU rules that prohibit anticompetitive business practices such as collusion on prices (Article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and Article 53 of the EEA Agreement). The conduct took place between 2007 and 2011.

The claim is being brought in the UK’s Competition Appeal Tribunal (also known as the CAT). The Competition Appeal Tribunal is a specialist court based in London. It has cross-disciplinary expertise in law, economics, business, and accountancy, and hears and decides cases involving competition or economic regulatory issues. The CAT publishes its Rules and Guidance, together with information about what it does, on its website: www.catribunal.org.uk.

We have secured funding from a highly experienced global litigation funder. In addition, we have obtained after-the-event insurance to meet any adverse costs orders made against us.

Claimants are not required to pay any legal fees, nor do they run the risk of paying the defendants’ costs of defending the litigation.

Nothing. All costs are met by us. We are working with a specialist third party litigation funder to bring the claim. In return for its investment, the funder will receive a fee.

You will be entitled to your share of the damages if the claim is successful at trial or the Competition Appeal Tribunal approves a settlement between the claimants and the banks.

We will run the claim on your behalf so it will involve significantly less work to recover your losses than if you seek to recover your losses on an individual basis.

The claim will be brought at no cost to you, and there is no risk of you being liable for the banks’ costs in the event that the claim is unsuccessful.

The damages suffered by each individual claimant will be based on calculations carried out by experts. The experts will determine the difference between the price of all trades placed by claimants which were artificially inflated as a result of the cartels, and the price which claimants would have paid but for the banks’ manipulation of the market.

The sum of damages that you receive will be calculated by the claims administrator if settlement is reached or the claim is successful.

The legal process could take several years. It is possible that the case will settle without going to trial, in which case compensation could be available sooner.

As with any litigation, there can be no guarantee of recovery. However, there is no cost to you and no risk that you will be ordered to pay the banks’ costs if the claim is unsuccessful.

The best thing to do now if you believe you may have entered into relevant transactions is to register your interest on this website. We will then contact you.

We can conduct an initial assessment of the actual value of your damages. We therefore recommend that investors collect trading data relating to their purchases and sales and send them to us for analysis.

Updates about the claim will be sent to you on a regular basis. You can also check this website for updates and announcements.

The list of those who register on the website is confidential and will be shared only in due course with those instructed to pursue the claim on its behalf (e.g. its lawyers and experts).