A New York judge sitting in the matter where 16 banks are accused of manipulating prices on the foreign exchange markets, refused to dismiss antitrust allegations leveled against Credit Suisse Group AG. During the proceedings on Wednesday, the judge only agreed to narrow the antitrust lawsuit but could not be convinced to throw it out.

The lawsuit against the banks came from a group of investors who accused the bank of allegedly manipulating prices for their benefit. This rigging of prices was reportedly done through the sharing of trading positions and confidential orders which controlled the prices in the banks’ favor.

According to the lawsuit, the banks are accused of violating the US’ antitrust law between 2003 and 2013 when they rigged bid/ask spreads, benchmarks, and FX prices. The banks were sued in May this year by the group of investors who are seeking compensation for the losses they incurred at the hands of the accused banks.

Some of the plaintiffs in the case include big-name firms such as Allianz SE’s Pacific Investment Management Co. and BlackRock Inc. The plaintiffs said that they have plans to start a lawsuit in London against many other banks that have also been engaged in similar practices.

Credit Suisse opts to fight the lawsuit

Of the 16 banks that faced the lawsuit, 15 opted to settle with the plaintiffs. A combined settlement of $2.31 billion was paid, but Credit Suisse chose to fight against the antitrust charges.

The bank says that it has not found any evidence of misconduct on its part and hence, it chooses to fight. The banks are believed to have acted together as they manipulated the prices of offers, bids or spreads for foreign currency spot trades. Credit Suisse denies these allegations, and therefore, the bank’s case will continue before the New York courts.

Regulators are expected to come out and layout all the illegal activity the banks are said to have conducted before imposing fines on the financial institutions.

The penalties expected to be imposed on the banks could be as high as 10% of their global turnover.

Market manipulation

Banks and financial institutions that have control over money markets have long been accused of rigging the markets to perform for their benefit.

EU regulators recently fined five banks for conspiring to bring down the competition in different markets for 11 currencies. A total fine of over €1 billion was imposed on the accused banks.

Over the years, several banks have pled guilty to different kinds of market manipulation. Regulators are continually working towards combating the rigging of markets in their bid to protect investors from being taken advantage of.