The Class Action Case Files
Portfolio monitoring and asset recovery of growing global securities class actions can be daunting. Broadridge can help simplify the complex.
Just the Facts
On March 30, 2018, Plaintiffs Oklahoma Firefighters Pension & Retirement System and Electrical Workers Pension Fund Local 103, I.B.E.W., filed an antitrust class action against a group of banks that served as Market Makers competing in the Mexican Government Bond (MGB) market. Plaintiffs allege that the Defendants conspired to fix the prices of MGBs issued by the Mexican government by transacting in price-fixed MGBs at artificial prices with market participants, including the class members. They allege that these Market Makers conspired and artificially deflated the price of the MGBs when they were purchasing the debt instrument; the Market Makers then inversely, through this alleged conspiracy, inflated the sale price of the MGBs on the secondary market, while collecting the difference (or the spread) as profits.
This consolidated class action is presently before Judge J. Paul Oetken of United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. (In re Mexican Government Bonds Antitrust Litigation, Case No. 18-cv-02830). Currently two of the nine major banks have agreed to settled. In their respective motions and memorandums, Plaintiffs defined these settlements as “ice breaker” settlements, suggesting they may serve as catalysts for resolutions with the remaining non-settling defendants.
Judge Oetken preliminarily approved the two ice breaker settlements, which amount to $20,700,000 USD, on December 16, 2020. The class definition for each settlement includes: All persons that entered into a Mexican Government Bond (“MGB”) Transaction at any time between at least January 1, 2006, and April 19, 2017, where such persons were either domiciled in the United States or its territories or, if domiciled outside the United States or its territories, transacted in the United States or its territories.
The claim filing deadline to participate in the settlements was extended by 31 business days on July 23, 2021, with claims now due on November 29, 2021, providing class members with additional time to properly file their claims in this complex financial antitrust class action.
Case Challenges
NUMEROUS ELIGIBLE SECURITIES
The settlements here involve more than 1,100 eligible bonds. This challenge impacts a variety of areas of the case. First, portfolio monitoring is made more complicated by the size of the searches and resulting data exports. Second, the time required to prepare and file claims can be increased exponentially. Finally, significant quality assurance measures are needed to ensure accuracy and completeness of the files before they can even be filed.
FOREIGN BOND MARKET
Eligible securities here include bonds issued through the Bank of Mexico in the Mexican bond market and included any debt securities issued by Mexico that are Mexican Peso-denominated, including, but not limited to, CETES, Bondes D, UDIBONOS, and BONOS. Eligible transactions included the purchase, sale, or exchange of MGBs, on the primary, secondary, or any other market. This requires a higher-level review to locate and confirm each transaction.
CLASS PERIOD IS 15 YEARS OLD
The class period for the eligible transactions began over a decade ago. Typically, most financial institutions and individuals only keep copies of statements, broker confirmations and house data relating to their accounts for seven years. As such, given the length and the start of this class period, it is hard for a class member to: (a) provide transaction information longer than 7-10 years; and (b) provide full supporting documentation that is required. As a result, class members may miss eligible transactions, negatively impacting their potential recognized loss.
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| Table Heading | ||
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| title1 | title2 | title3 |
| +1 800 353 0103 | North America | |
| +442075513000 | EMEA | |
| +65 6438 1144 | APAC |