Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan, Goldman in $500M settlement in stock lending antitrust suit

JPMorgan Chase & Co.
JPM,
+0.15%,
Morgan Stanley
MS,
+0.14%,
Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
GS,
-0.34%,
UBS Group AG
UBS,
+1.93%
and EquiLend agreed to pay $500 million in cash to settle a six-year-old antitrust suit led by four pension funds and an advisory firm called Torus Capital LLC, according to a statement issued late Wednesday. Negotiations with Bank of America Corp.
BAC,
+0.23%
are continuing, said law firm Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC. The plaintiffs alleged that the banks and their EquiLend joint venture prevented “the modernization of the antiquated, inefficient, and opaque over-the-counter stock loan market in order to preserve their market dominance and role as privileged intermediaries between borrowers and lenders of stock.” The plaintiffs already settled with Credit Suisse in the amount of $81 million. EquiLend agreed to make reforms as well as to cooperate with the ongoing lawsuit against Bank of America. The plaintiffs include the  Iowa Public Employees’ Retirement System, the Los Angeles County Employees Retirement System, the Orange County Employees Retirement System, and the Sonoma County Employees Retirement Association.