JPMorgan agrees to pay US$15.7m to settle spoofing lawsuit

[WASHINGTON] JPMorgan Chase & Co agreed to pay US$15.7 million in cash to settle a class action lawsuit by investors who accused the largest US bank of intentionally manipulating prices of US Treasury futures and options.

The settlement disclosed late Wednesday night stemmed from sprawling US government investigations into illegal trading in futures and precious metals markets, known as spoofing.

JPMorgan did not admit wrongdoing in agreeing to the settlement, which covers traders in Treasury futures and options from April 2008 to January 2016 and requires approval by a federal judge in Manhattan.

Last September, JPMorgan entered a deferred prosecution agreement and agreed to pay US$920 million, including a US$436 million criminal fine, to settle US government probes into spoofing in Treasuries and precious metals. The bank also agreed to self-report future violations.

Spoofing is a practice in which traders place orders they intend to cancel, hoping to move prices to benefit their market positions. The Justice Department has employed sophisticated data analysis tools to spot potential spoofing that it could not previously detect.

The US$15.7 million payout would recover less than one-third of the estimated classwide damages, a court filing shows.

Lawyers for the traders plan to seek up to one-third of the settlement, or about US$5.2 million, to cover legal fees.

REUTERS