Citi, Barclays Beat Sovereign Bond Manipulation Claims on Appeal

Citigroup Inc., Barclays Plc, and other top banks got a federal appeals court in Manhattan on Monday to uphold their win against antitrust claims over an alleged scheme to rig the multitrillion-dollar market for bonds backed by foreign governments and multinational institutions.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed a pair of rulings by Judge Edgardo Ramos, who previously dismissed allegations that the banks manipulated the $9 trillion to $15 trillion market for “supranational, sub-sovereign, and agency” bonds, or SSA bonds.

The pension funds leading the case “have cast a net so wide that the ...