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OSMO Partners and Chicago Clearing Corporation collaborate on Class Action Claims Service for Investment Managers

OSMO Partners (OSMO), the Outsourced COO and Middle Office service provider to Investment Management firms, has partnered with the Chicago Clearing Corporation (CCC) to provide a specialist service to assess and process Class Action Claims for investment firms.

The efficient and seamless claims process will ‘match’ Class Action class periods against investor trade history provided to OSMO by Investment Manager clients. It will identify and assess past and pending claims and, through CCC, pursue eligible claims on behalf of specific funds.

One of the historic challenges for investors - and fund managers - in filing Class Action claims is the effort required to retrieve historical trade data and track all the litigation opportunities in jurisdictions across the world. OSMO will assume this role, screening historic trading data provided by Investment Managers to identify ‘qualifying’ investors and investments against specific Class Action claims, and providing validated data to CCC. CCC in turn will analyse potential claims, providing an assessment report to OSMO to share with the Investment Manager client. Should the client decide to pursue a claim on behalf of its investor base, OSMO/CCC will pursue it through the appropriate legal jurisdictions and channels. 

The new service complements OSMO’s wider COO Consulting and Operations services that are focused primarily on Hedge Fund launches and ongoing outsourced COO and operational support. Additionally, OSMO provides advisory services on specific projects such as changes to Service Provides.

Richard Harris, Head of Outsourced COO Services at OSMO Partners, said: “In the current economic climate and with increasing asset price volatility, market commentators expect the number of class and group actions to grow. There is enormous potential to enhance funds performance with the proceeds of successful Class Action claims. In partnership with CCC we want to help our Investment Manager clients capitalise on this potentially significant opportunity.”

James Tharin, CEO and Founder of CCC, said: “For nearly 30 years, CCC has combined the best claim filing services with the best customer service in the industry, and we continue to create new technologies and intuitive systems to help investors and investment firms to maximise claims recoveries for eligible settlements. We are delighted to partner with OSMO Partners to bring these services to UK and European markets.”


About Class Actions

A Class Action is a legal case brought against a corporation or institution on behalf of a group of similarly-impacted investors, with potentially huge settlement values. For example, investors are still waiting to receive a portion of their settlement payments awarded in a $2.3 billion Foreign Exchange Benchmark Antitrust Litigation settled a few years back. Twitter agreed to pay $809.5 million to harmed investors in 2022, and Wells Fargo settled a securities class action litigation for $1 billion in 2023. Currently, there is $11 billion in escrow for harmed investors in securities class action settlements and $1 billion for settlements with claim filing deadlines in the next six to eight months. 

Previously more prevalent in the US and Australia, Class Actions are becoming more common in the UK and Europe. In the UK, in January 2023, there were 41 outstanding legal actions relating to interest rate manipulation, and more than 100 class action/group action lawsuits against a number of leading UK banks, with total potential claims pay outs in the billions of pounds. 



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