MPERS said in its filing at the US district court for the southern district of New York that JPMorgan allegedly began taking advantage of investors in the fund in 2005 by quoting them disadvantageous FX rates.
Based in Baton Rouge, MPERS has around $1.4 billion of member cash invested with JPMorgan, according to the fund’s website.
“JPMorgan's scheme allowed it, in violation of its contractual and fiduciary obligations, to extract hundreds of millions of dollars in illicit risk-free profits from its clients under the guise of FX trading,” according to a Bloomberg story citing the MPERS court filing.
MPERS is reportedly seeking damages, punitive damages and disgorgement of profits.
Custodian banks are the subject of a number of recent lawsuits by pensions-fund investors claiming they were overcharged for FX transactions.
That, in turn, has led to an increase in the number of service providers for transactions cost analysis as more investors respond to the increased requirement for price transparency.