Arkansas Teacher Retirement System v. State Street Corp.

Labaton Sucharow represents the Arkansas Teachers Retirement System ("ARTRS") in a class action against State Street Corporation and certain affiliated entities asserting violations of the Massachusetts Consumer Protection Act, Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 93A, and common law claims for breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, and negligent misrepresentation. The case is pending in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, before Chief Judge Mark L. Wolf.

ARTRS's Amended Class Action Complaint, filed on April 15, 2011, alleges that State Street, as ARTRS's and class members' custodial bank, for more than a decade has unfairly and deceptively priced "standing-instruction" foreign currency exchange ("FX") trades to maximize profits to itself at the direct expense of custodial clients such as ARTRS and the Class. ARTRS alleges that State Street took mark-ups and mark-downs on standing-instruction FX trades with ARTRS and the class that were orders of magnitude larger than FX trades negotiated directly. ARTRS further alleges that mark-ups and mark-downs on such trades could, and very often did, place the rates outside the trading range of the day for the affected currencies.

State Street filed its motion to dismiss on June 3, 2011. ARTRS filed its opposition on July 20, 2011, and briefing was completed on August 19, 2011. Judge Wolf will hear oral argument on February 24, 2012.