Banks including Barclays, HSBC and RBS agree £1.3bn settlement over ‘rigging’

Friday’s agreements are distinct from proceedings led by US and British regulators, which in May ordered $6 billion in fines on six major banks for rigging forex and Libor interest rates.

Hausfeld, which represented investors, gave no indication how the sum would be divided between the banks and said that the agreements were preliminary and must still be approved by US District Judge Lorna Schofield.

Hausfeld alleges that the world’s largest banks conspired to manipulate prices paid in the $5.3 trillion per day foreign exchange market from 2003.

In addition to giving payments to the plaintiffs, the settling banks had also agreed to co-operate with the claimants, which, according to lawyers had opened up a trove of extra information which could be used in cases in the UK.

The banks yet to settle are Standard Chartered (LON:STAN), Societe Generale, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, RBC Capital Markets, Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley.

Michael Hausfeld, the law firm’s chairman, said it was the result of “lengthy, hard fought negotiations”. They added that “We look forward if necessary to litigating through trial”, and warned that this is “just the beginning”. Compensation from these losses will require concerted action in London’.

‘There is no doubt that anyone who traded [forex] in or through the London or Asian markets – which transact trillions of dollars of business every day – will have suffered significant loss as a result of the actions of the banks. Investors around the world should take note of the significant recoveries secured in the United States and recognise that these settlements cover a fraction of the world’s largest financial market’. These settlements follow four settlements with Citigroup Inc. and Citibank, N.A., Bank of America Corporation and Bank of America N.A., UBS AG, UBS Group AG, and UBS Securities LLC, and JPMorgan Chase & Co. and JPM Chase Bank, N.A. that Scott+Scott previously announced.

Barclays agreed to pay a £284.4 million fine to the FCA in May for its role in FX rate rigging, and RBS, Barclays, JP Morgan Citi Group also agreed in May to pay criminal fines to the US Department of Justice and US Federal Reserve totalling $5.7 billion (£3.8 billion) for their role in fixing FX rates to boost their own profits.