- BI analyst Stein sees banks settling for about $900 million
- Illinois settled near-decade of litigation on VRDO pricing
Wall Street banks’ potential bill to settle bond price-fixing lawsuits has been slashed, falling to around $900 million from about $2.5 billion penciled in just a month ago.
That’s the thinking of Elliott Stein, senior litigation analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, after Illinois settled for $68 million, roughly 20% of damages last month, likely setting a template for other settlements of the three remaining False Claims Act lawsuits.
Stein estimates that lawsuits in California, New Jersey and New York will cost the dozen banks involved — including Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. — around $220 million in total. A class action case filed in New York with similar allegations could be resolved for as much as $600 million. Before the Illinois settlement, Stein had estimated the tab on all five suits at $2.5 billion.
Bloomberg Markets
By Joseph Mysak Jr
August 10, 2023