Barclays Faces Another Forex-Related Lawsuit

An investment advisory firm has filed a lawsuit against Barclays for alleged losses suffered by its trading partners as a result of some of the bank’s practices on its foreign exchange trading platform.

Reuters reports that Axiom Investment Advisors alleged that Barclays had on several occasions used a feature called ‘Last Look’ on its platform. This feature automatically rejects orders placed by clients if considered to be unprofitable for the bank due to price changes in the super shorthold periods after an order is placed, according to the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS).

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Last Look of Resentment

Axiom said in the lawsuit filed with the federal court in Manhattan that it and other companies suffered damages because of the ‘Last Look’ feature, which caused the firm to end up getting a worse price for the trades it placed on Barclays’ platform because the initial contract price was unprofitable for the bank.

Just last week, the NYDFS hit Barclays with a $150-million fine for abusing the forex market, again via its online trading platform. According to the NYDFS in that case, Barclays had sought to benefit at the expense of clients and counterparties by manipulating its own internal systems and controls to gain an unfair advantage.