Jonathan Stempel — Lawsuit accuses 22 banks of manipulating U.S. Treasury auctions

Libor in the UK, Treasury auctions in the US. WTF!!!

Twenty-two financial companies that have served as primary dealers of U.S. Treasury securities were sued in federal court on Thursday, in what was described as the first nationwide class action alleging a conspiracy to manipulate Treasury auctions that harmed both investors and borrowers.…

According to the pension fund's complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in New York, the banks used chat rooms, instant messages and other means to swap confidential customer information and coordinate trading strategies in the roughly $12.5 trillion Treasury market.

This enabled the banks to inflate prices on Treasuries they sold to investors in the pre-auction "when issued" market, and deflate prices when they bought Treasuries to cover their pre-auction sales, violating antitrust laws, according to the complaint.

Primary dealers are the banks authorized to transact directly with the Federal Reserve. They are big players in Treasury bond auctions and act as market makers in the secondary market…

Media reports last month said the Justice Department was also investigating possible collusion in Treasury auctions.…

Reuters
Lawsuit accuses 22 banks of manipulating U.S. Treasury auctions
Jonathan Stempel

Steven Perlberg — Here's Everything You Need To Know About The Growing Investigation Into Rigging The Global Currency Market

We'll start with the basics. The foreign exchange market — "forex" — is the biggest market in the world, though it doesn't get as much mainstream press as its stock and bond brethren. Traders buy and sell money on the forex market.

"The FX market is like the Wild West," one forex expert told Bloomberg. "It's buyer beware."

That's in part because the market is lightly regulated and a ton of currency trading happens in the shadowy realm outside of exchanges.

This particular currency rigging story has been going on for some time, with Bloomberg reporting in June that traders at some of the world's biggest banks had been toying with rates by pushing through trades before the 60-second window when the FX benchmarks are set.

Business Insider
Here's Everything You Need To Know About The Growing Investigation Into Rigging The Global Currency Market
Steven Perlberg

Yves Smith — How Goldman Made $5 Billion By Manipulating Aluminum Inventories (and Copper is Up Next)

Neoliberal capitalism at its finest. Free to frontrun and manipulate markets.

Naked Capitalism

How Goldman Made $5 Billion By Manipulating Aluminum Inventories (and Copper is Up Next)
Yves Smith