HSBC Holdings Plc will pay $35 million to end private US antitrust litigation claiming that it harmed investors by conspiring with other banks to manipulate the yen Libor and Euroyen Tibor benchmark interest rates. Papers outlining the preliminary settlement were filed on Friday in the US District Court in Manhattan. Court approval is required.
The accord came 4-1/2 months after Citigroup Inc reached a similar $23 million settlement, in what lawyers for the plaintiff investors called an "ice breaker" that might spur some of the roughly 20 other bank defendants to settle. An HSBC spokesman did not immediately respond to requests for comment.