The CAT and the (alleged) fiddle

摘要

The laughing stopped long ago. Between 2007 and 2013, in online chat-rooms called "Three Way Banana Split", "Essex Express 'n the Jimmy" and other rib-ticklers, currency traders yapped about all sorts of things—including market tactics. The banter has cost their employers dear. Banks have been fined over $10bn for market-rigging by American and European regulators, including €1.1bn ($1.2bn) by the European Commission in May. An American class action cost 15 banks $2.3bn. But a lawyer's work is never done. On July 29th Scott+Scott, an American law firm, filed a collective-action case at the Competition Appeal Tribunal (cat), an antitrust forum in London.