BNY Mellon Agrees To Pay $714 Mln To Settle Currency Suits

(RTTNews) - Bank of New York Mellon Corp. (BK) agreed to pay $714 million to settle allegations by the U.S. and New York state that it defrauded clients in foreign-exchange transactions for as long as a decade.

The company said it has reached a series of settlement agreements with the U.S. Department of Justice or DOJ, the New York Attorney General or NYAG, the U.S. Department of Labor, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and private customer class actions. Collectively, these settlements fully resolve the lawsuits and enforcement proceedings commenced by these parties relating to certain of the standing instruction FX services that BNY Mellon provided to its custody clients prior to early 2012.

The total settlement amount is fully covered by pre-existing legal reserves. The DOJ and NYAG will each receive $167.5 million. The Department of Labor will receive $14 million and the Securities and Exchange Commission, with which the company has reached a settlement in principle, will receive $30 million. The company has agreed to pay $335 million to settle the customer class action litigation.