By Vicki Schmelzer
NEW YORK (MNI ) – When the Foreign Exchange Working Group released the Global Code of Conduct for the foreign exchange industry in May, some market participants were hoping that a practice called “Last Look” might be eliminated. Instead, “Last Look” got the FXWG’s tacit approval, albeit with a stern warning that its use on electronic platforms must be transparent to
clients.
Peter Kilbinger Hansen, Chairman of Battea – Class Action Services LLC, explained the “Last Look” practice in layman’s terms in an exclusive interview with MNI. Many banks’ single platforms, and in some cases electronic market makers’ platforms, had “Last Look” built in as a stealth feature, he said. A client attempting to trade on a firm FX price on the platform might find that the deal was not executed, Hansen said.
The banks “would suspend the execution and not execute. And they would take a ‘last look’ at the market around them to see has anything had changed since they put up that quote … And if it did, they would reject the transaction … So, clients were seeing rejections or they were experiencing delays in execution and receiving different execution prices than the quotes that were advertised,” he said.
Battea is a global leader and expert in all stages of asserting and processing settlement claims in connection with antitrust and securities litigation. Battea has an exclusive position in the industry as its owners and team members built FX and derivatives trading systems for many of the world’s largest global banks, including several of the defendants. Their expertise in the FX markets is unparalleled.
About Battea – Class Action Services
Battea – Class Action Services, LLC is the leading provider of securities class action settlement recovery for institutional investors. Utilizing proprietary technology, Battea maximizes settlement award recovery across all asset classes for hundreds of institutional clients and its global, full-service solution manages the complex claims filing process combining accuracy and unparalleled transparency. Battea has augmented its professional staff assembling many of the foremost international financial technology experts and data security technologists, former claims administrators, financial industry experts, securities litigation analysts and econometric experts. The company has been a leader in the space for nearly 20 years and serves more than 700 institutions around the world, including many of the world’s biggest banks, hedge funds, and buy-side investors.