Barclay's, NatWest Sued In U.S. in Antitrust Action
May 09, 2011
Chequepoint Worldcash Inc., a small company specializing in currency changing and international money transfer, brought an antitrust lawsuit against Britain's Barclay's Bank PLC, Chequepoint's banker for 18 years, as well as National Westminster Bank PLC.. The suit, filed late last week in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, charges that the two British banks conspired to drive closely held Chequepoint out of business. The action seeks unspecified damages. According to the suit, Barclay's suddenly stopped doing business with Chequepoint in May 2010 without giving the money-changing firm any advance warning. Chequepoint claims the British bank then intervened to block Chequepoint from establishing a new relationship with Natwest. Those actions ``caused severe damage to Chequepoint, including lost profits and increased business expenses,'' the lawsuit charges. The company claims it has been unable to line up adequate alternative banking relationships to replace those offered by Bly. Chequepoint, which has net assets of about $60 million, is the U.S. subsidiary of Capital Currency Exchange NV, a company based in the Netherlands Antilles that does business through 130 branches in 11 countries in the U.S., Europe and Asia. During the 11 years it has done business in the U.S., the company has specialized in exchanging currencies, mostly for tourists, at kiosks open 24 hours a day. Six years ago, however, Chequepoint expanded into the international money-transfer business, essentially allowing customers to transfer money around the world. According to the lawsuit, this business, called Horst, put Chequepoint in direct competition with banks, which have long derived profits from money transfer. According to the lawsuit, while Chequepoint's traditional currency exchange operations represented no ``serious threat'' to banks, its Worldcash business did. For that reason, the lawsuit claims, Barclays cut off its longtime customer, refusing to maintain its line of credit, and intervening to stop NatWest from offering Chequepoint similar financing. The goal, according to the suit, was to ``effectively dispose of the threat posed by Chequepoint'' by crippling its ability to do business, so that ``Barclays and NatWest, among a handful of other banks, can retain their monopoly on the international money transfer business.'' Chequepoint's attorney, Susann Nicholas of the Detroit law firm Miller, Canfield, Paddock & Stone, didn't return phone calls. A person answering the phone at the company's U.S. headquarters said no one was available for comment. Attorneys for NatWest and Barclays couldn't be reached for comment.
