Six global banks have agreed to pay a combined $86.4 million to settle allegations they rigged prices in Mexico’s government bond market, documents filed in Manhattan federal court showed.
The settlement resolves a U.S. lawsuit accusing the banks of conspiring to manipulate prices of Mexican sovereign bonds, known as bonos, between 2010 and 2015. The case was brought by investors who claimed the alleged collusion distorted trading in the secondary market for these securities.
The defendants include subsidiaries of JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Bank of America, Barclays, Deutsche Bank, and Goldman Sachs, according to court filings. Each bank neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing as part of the agreement.
The settlement amount is among the largest in recent cases involving alleged misconduct in emerging market debt trading. Mexican government bonds are a key benchmark for Latin American debt markets, and price manipulation in such instruments can have broader implications for investor confidence and capital flows.
The resolution follows a series of enforcement actions by U.S. and Mexican regulators targeting misconduct in fixed-income markets, including prior cases involving currency and interest rate manipulation. The banks’ subsidiaries named in the lawsuit operated primarily in New York and London, where much of the trading in Mexican sovereign debt occurs.
The agreement must still be approved by U.S. District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer, who has overseen related litigation. No trial date had been set prior to the settlement announcement.
