An affiliate of MF Global Holdings Ltd. filed a lawsuit alleging 11 banks engaged in anticompetive practices in the $25 trillion credit-default swaps market, including preventing the company from becoming a clearing broker for swaps. MF Global Capital LLC, an arm of the collapsed broker managed by a board liquidating the company, filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois late Thursday alleging the banks “restrained competition” in the lucrative CDS market. MF Global’s move is the third lawsuit filed in the U.S. claiming banks controlled the swaps market inappropriately. It is also the latest sign that companies who say they were hamstrung by banks dominating the market are growing into a credible threat for Wall Street firms still reeling from litigation on everything from mortgage bonds to manipulation of a key interest rate benchmark, Libor, or the London Interbank Offered Rate. More in the Wall Street Journal here.
