By Aruna Viswanatha
WASHINGTON-- Bank of New York Mellon Corp. agreed to pay $714
million to resolve a series of lawsuits and probes that accused the
custody bank of giving some clients worse prices on foreign
currency trades than they had been promised, authorities said
Thursday.
The settlement resolves two long-running lawsuits from Manhattan
U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara and New York Attorney General Eric
Schneiderman, as well as private cases and investigations by the
Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Department of
Labor, according to Mr. Schneiderman's office.
Under the deal with New York state, the bank agreed to fire
"certain employees involved in the conduct," including David
Nichols, a managing director and head of products management who
was also charged in the federal lawsuit. A lawyer for Mr. Nichols
didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
The bank has previously denied the allegations and fought most
of the charges, agreeing in 2012 only to make changes to pricing
disclosures. Last month the bank said it would adjust its
fourth-quarter results to include a $598 million litigation expense
as it neared resolution of foreign-exchange and other matters.
As a custody bank, BNY Mellon safeguards about $28.5 trillion in
assets for money managers, companies and other clients, performing
administrative functions on behalf of other banks and corporations.
It is also an investment manager, with $1.7 trillion of assets
under management.
Write to Aruna Viswanatha at aruna.viswanatha@wsj.com
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