Settlement Approved in Public Pension Securities Lending Suit

The U.S. District Court of the District of Minnesota in its ruling in The City of Farmington Hills Employees Retirement System v. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., Civil No. 10-4372 DWF/JJG (U.S. District Court of the District of Minnesota) has granted final approval of a $62.5 million settlement in a class action against Wells Fargo Bank on behalf of participants in the bank’s securities lending program. 

The settlement proceeds will be shared by a class of approximately 100 pension funds, corporations, insurance companies and others who participated in Wells Fargo Bank’s securities lending program from Jan. 1, 2006 to present. The City of Farmington Hills Employees Retirement System, the Board of Trustees of the Arizona State Carpenters Pension Trust Fund and the Arizona State Carpenters Defined Contribution Trust Fund served as Court-appointed class representatives.

According to plaintiff’s counsel, the Miller Law Firm and Glancy Binkow, the total settlement amount is among the largest recoveries achieved in a securities lending class action stemming from the 2008 financial crisis. The note that the settlement was “literally achieved on the courthouse steps the weekend before a jury trial was scheduled to commence."