Global Banking Giants Agree To Pay $120M To End Bond-Rigging Suit

In December 2024, DiCello Levitt and Co-Lead Counsel won final approval of an $80 million settlement on behalf of investors accusing multiple global financial institutions of conspiring to fix European government bond (EGB) prices. This agreement—with Bank of America, Citigroup, and four other banking giants—followed settlements finalized the previous year with other institutions, bringing total settlements to $120 million and resolving the litigation in its entirety.

DiCello Levitt filed the first case in this lawsuit, which alleged that the defendants rigged EGB auctions and fixed bid-ask spreads that they quoted to customers. European regulators fined several of the same dealers over €370 million based on their investigation. For this litigation, our legal team conducted an extensive pre-complaint investigation that included analysis of the price of French and Italian 10-year bonds in and around auctions from 2006 to 2013 and millions of Italian, French, German, and Spanish government bond quotes in the secondary market from 2004 to 2015.

After several rounds of briefing and amending the complaint, our team succeeded in defeating the defendants’ efforts to dismiss the action. The plaintiffs were able to expand their case—adding additional allegations and defendants—based on cooperation obtained from early settlements, including inter-bank chats on Bloomberg. The plaintiffs settled first with State Street for cooperation, then with JPMorgan for $13 million. In 2023, the plaintiffs settled with Natixis for $14 million and UniCredit for $13 million.

The victories in this case demonstrate the importance of private enforcement in the antitrust space. Without private enforcement, injured class members would not have recovered their losses, as the government did not file an action in the United States.

The case is In re European Government Bonds Antitrust Litigation. Greg Asciolla led the DiCello Levitt team that also included Noah Cozad.