Tencent Securities News according to the Business Insider (BI) website, on August 17th, three US pension funds sued six of the world's largest banks, includingGoldman Sachs Group(GSF),JPMorgan Chase & Co(JPM), Bank of America (BAC), Credit Suisse (CS),Morgan Stanley(MS) and Bank of Switzerland (UBS).
Three pension funds have filed a lawsuit in a federal court in Manhattan, accusing six banks of boycotting AQS, a burgeoning stock lending platform, through threats and threats.
The Iowa Public employee Retirement Fund (Iowa Public Employees' Retirement System), the Orange County employee Retirement Fund (Orange County Employees' Retirement System) and the Sonoma County employee Retirement Association (Sonoma County Employees' Retirement Association) said in the lawsuit that six banks monopolized the stock lending market and violated federal antitrust laws.
Pension fund lawyer Michael Eisenkraft said: "Over the years,Goldman Sachs GroupAndMorgan StanleyBanks have been maintaining their control over pension funds through a variety of improper means. Pension funds have almost no interest on Wall Street, but they are very profitable.".
Goldman Sachs Group、JPMorgan Chase & CoAndBank of America CorporationRepresentatives declined to comment. Other banks did not immediately respond.
Pension funds say banks are in cahoots, forcing investors and retirees to pay high fees for stock loans, hurting investors and retirees.
Stock lending is related to short selling. Stock lending means that shareholders lend shares to investors or companies through middlemen or dealers.Other institutional investors such as pension funds often lend shares to hedge funds.In the case of short selling, if you neither buy nor borrow a security, investors want to buy it again at some point in the future when the price falls.
Quadriserv Inc and SL-x jointly developed a new stock lending platform, AQS, which allows borrowers and lenders to trade directly without the involvement of middlemen, but the defendant conspired to destroy the platform, the pension fund said in the lawsuit.
The lawsuit claims that in 2012,Goldman Sachs GroupThe company threatened Bank of New York Mellon (BK) to terminate its cooperation with Bank of New York if it continued to support transactions on the AQS platform, and Bank of New York agreed to terminate its use. Bank of New York Mellon did not comment on it.
The lawsuit alleges that banks bought out SL-x 's intellectual property rights and stopped using them by setting up a joint project called EquiLend LLC. Pension funds accuse six big banks of setting up EquiLend in 2001 to protect their interests in the stock lending market.
A spokesman for EquiLend, one of the defendants, declined to comment. (compiled by Muchen / revised by Zhu Yi)