Calling the $1.72 trillion international stock loan market good for the banks that do the lending but "bad for virtually everyone else," a trio of pension funds filed a class action suit against six of the world's largest financial firms Thursday.
The Iowa Public Employees' Retirement System, Orange County Employees Retirement System and Sonoma County Employees' Retirement Association accused the banks of conspiring to violate federal antitrust laws "to keep stock loan trading frozen in an inefficient and opaque [over-the-counter] market in order to preserve their privileged position as intermediaries on every trade," according to the suit brought in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
According to the suit, Bank of America, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Morgan Stanley and UBS worked together since at least 2009 to obstruct efforts to create a competitive electronic exchange, while using their stranglehold over the stock loan market to overcharge investors.
Stock lending allows investors to temporarily transfer stock from one investor to another, and plays a vital role underlying most short-selling activity, according to the plaintiffs. Short selling without stock borrowing is illegal under U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rules, they noted. The market for securities on loan today is nearly $2 trillion.
"Through various improper means, the likes of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have for years colluded to maintain their power over this little-known-but-lucrative corner of Wall Street," Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll partner Michael Eisenkraft, attorney for the plaintiffs, said in a statement. "In doing so, they deprive investors of money that should flow to retirees, families and other hard-working Americans."
