Banks win bid to block $3.6 billion mass forex UK lawsuit

LONDON, ‌Dec 18 (Reuters) - Major banks including JPMorgan, UBSS> and ‍Citigroup ‌on Thursday won their bid to block a 2.7 ⁠billion-pound ($3.6 billion) mass ‌lawsuit over alleged foreign exchange rigging.

Phillip Evans, a former inquiry chair at Britain's Competition Markets Authority, was leading the ⁠case on behalf of thousands of asset managers, pension funds ​and financial institutions.

The lawsuit, which was also ‌brought against Barclays, MUFG ⁠and Natwest, is based on findings made by the European Commission, which fined banks more than ​1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) in 2019.

The European Commission found the banks had rigged the multitrillion-dollar foreign exchange market in two separate cartels between 2007 ​and ‍2013.

Some of the ​world's biggest investment banks have paid more than a combined $11 billion in fines to settle U.S., British and European regulatory allegations that traders manipulated currency rates for years.

Evans' case was initially blocked in 2022 ⁠by the Competition Appeal Tribunal, before it was revived by the Court ​of Appeal the following year.

The banks appealed to the United Kingdom's Supreme Court, which reinstated the Competition Appeal Tribunal's decision to refuse ‌to certify the case on an opt-out basis.

($1 = 0.7493 pounds)

(Reporting by Sam Tobin; editing by William James)