Representing Investment Manager in Direct Action Alleging Conspiracy Among World’s Largest International Banks to Fix Prices of LIBOR

In re: LIBOR-Based Financial Instruments Antitrust Litigation, 11-md-02262 (S.D.N.Y.)

Robins Kaplan is the only law firm representing Principal Financial Services, Inc., the Principal Life Insurance Company, Principal Funds, Inc., and Principal Variable Contract Funds, Inc. (“Principal Plaintiffs”) as direct-action plaintiffs in the multidistrict litigation alleging that defendant banks conspired to artificially suppress the U.S. Dollar London Interbank Offered Rates (referred to as “USD LIBOR”). The Principal Plaintiffs allege that defendants, large international banks that were empaneled by the British Bankers Association to report lending costs used in the benchmark’s calculation, conspired to suppress USD LIBOR rates between August 2007 through at least 2011. That suppression harmed investors like Principal Plaintiffs who held financial instruments with provisions to receive interest payments at rates indexed to USD LIBOR. To date, Robins Kaplan has resolved cases against found defendants on behalf of the Principal Plaintiffs. Litigation remains ongoing.

A reported $350 trillion of financial products are linked to LIBOR. As the Principal lawsuits allege, the LIBOR-rigging scandal enabled banks worldwide to pay artificially low interest rates that negatively affected consumers and financial markets around the world. Although governments and institutions globally have investigated and prosecuted banks involved in the scandal, the civil actions brought by Robins Kaplan are an essential development to preserve the integrity of financial markets worldwide.