Jonathan Stempel

NEW YORK (Reuters – Thursday’s dismissal of a lengthy antitrust case against 10 of the largest banks in the world was based on two separate conspiracies that sought to suppress competition within the market now worth $23.2 trillion for U.S. Treasury securities.

U.S. District Judge Paul Gardephe in Manhattan said the 18 plaintiffs — including pension and retirement funds, banks and companies that traded in Treasuries — failed to address shortcomings he found one year ago when dismissing an earlier version of their proposed class action.

Bank of America (NYSE) is one of the defendants. Barclays (LON:), BNP Paribas (OTC:), Citigroup (NYSE:), Credit Suisse (SIX :), Goldman Sachs, (NYSE :), JPMorgan Chase (NYSE :). Morgan Stanley (NYSE:), NatWest Group, UBS and Tradeweb Markets are trading platforms operator Tradeweb Markets. (NASDAQ:)

The banks were accused by traders of conspiring between 2007 and 2015 to make use of chat rooms for confidential orders, coordination strategies in an “auction conspiracy” and to exchange customer information.

The Bank of America and Citigroup were also accused by the group of Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs and Citigroup of using their market power to boycott electronic trading platforms offering “anonymous trading” and lower prices.

Gardephe, however, stated that chat transcripts and statistical analysis of banks’ trading were not sufficient to prove illegal collusion in his 74-page ruling.

The judge stated that he would not allow the plaintiffs to amend their complaint as he did last year.

Gardephe stated, “There’s no reason to believe further amendments would be beneficial.”

Dan Brockett is a lawyer representing the plaintiffs. In an email, Brockett stated that they are currently reviewing the opinion. They will review and evaluate all possible options in order to represent the class.

After news that the U.S. Department of Justice had begun investigating whether banks had manipulated Treasury markets, litigation was initiated in July 2015.

Banks worldwide have faced billions in criminal and civil sanctions for previous investigations into manipulation of foreign currency and the abandoned Libor interest rate benchmark.

This case is called In re: Treasuries Securities Auction Antitrust Litigation. U.S. District Court Southern District of New York No. 15-md-02673.