Barclays, Credit Suisse fork over $154M in ‘dark pool’ settlement

It could be a little bit safer to go back in the water.

Barclays and Credit Suisse on Monday agreed to pay $154.3 million to settle charges brought by New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman and the Securities and Exchange Commission over allegations the banks lied to customers about how their “dark pools” worked.

The settlement comes more than 18 months after Schneiderman’s office first surprised Barclays by announcing its suit against the bank’s “dark pool,” known as LX, which acts like a stock exchange but follows fewer regulations.

“These cases mark the first major victory in the fight against fraud in dark pool trading that began when we first sued Barclays,” Schneiderman said in a statement.

During protracted negotiations — which sometimes got ugly and outed two Barclays execs, William White and David Johnsen, as refusing to cooperate with a probe — the AG’s office alleged that both banks had misled customers about how many trades they executed on their own platforms.