Fideres

Fideres Partners LLP (Fideres) is an international economic consulting firm that specializes in antitrust litigation, securities litigation, and financial litigation. It provides unbiased, conflict-free economic analysis to competition regulators, law firms and their clients, from case evaluation to expert testimony and settlement negotiations. The firm's mission is "Unbiased economic truth. Fairness powered by data. Global victories." Fideres was founded following the 2008 financial crisis by Alberto Thomas and Steffen Hennig with a focus exclusively on litigation, maintaining independence from conflicts of interest that affect firms serving both corporate and litigation clients.

History

Fideres is a privately owned partnership established in 2009 by Alberto Thomas and Steffen Hennig.

Fideres has assisted litigation cases and provided research on financial market manipulation with work, among others, on LIBOR, FX, cryptocurrency market manipulation, and ISDAFIX. [1][2][3][4]

Services

Expert Services

Fideres works alongside law firms throughout the litigation timeline providing:

Expert economic analysis and testimony,
Valuation and damages analysis,
Expert reports and class action certification expert support,
Evidence in court and cross examination,
Market efficiency studies and loss causation assessments,
Settlement negotiation support.

Research

Research provided by Fideres focuses on the technical aspects of failed financial products and inefficient markets and has received press coverage by various media outlets.[2][7] Their research into the debt market, and government economic policies, such as CBILS, was also covered by the media.[8][9] Their work analyzing trading patterns in foreign exchange markets was also featured on BBC Radio 4 in reference to the FOREX scandal.[10] In 2016, Fideres's cofounder Alberto Thomas appeared on Sky News to discuss the ethics of Hedge Funds conducting and trading upon private exit polls for the UK.[11]

Gold Price Manipulation

Fideres's research showed that between January 2010 and December 2013 the price of gold may have been manipulated on "50 per cent of occasions," observing "instances of sharp movements in the price of the metal" during the two daily conference calls between Barclays, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Scotiabank and Societe Generale, a process called "London gold fixing".[12] Thomas called it an "anachronistic way" of setting the price for gold.[13] The findings were also reported on the Financial Times, but according to Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee the article, titled "Fears Over Gold Price Rigging Put Investors on Alert", was deleted from the FT website for being "too sensitive".[14]

Gold Price Manipulation

Corporate Bond Under-Pricing

Research conducted by Fideres found evidence of systemic overpricing in the bond market. Bloomberg [7] and Reuters [2] reported on the study, which analyzed the pricing of corporate bonds for the period 2010-2015. It estimated that, due to the mis-pricing carried out by the banks, US corporations may have lost up “to $18 billion” when they issued debt. Business Insider UK considered the research particularly “noteworthy” in relation to the size of the bond market[15] while Tracy Alloway, executive editor of Bloomberg, wrote on her Twitter account that the story may represent a "Libor moment in the bond market,” in reference to the LIBOR scandal.[16]

Closet Indexers

In 2014, fund groups faced investigation for misleading investors into buying so-called "closet indexers", funds sold as actively managed but behave like index trackers. Based on an analysis of 1,147 US equity funds with more than $1bn in assets, Fideres had found that 15 per cent of funds in the sample were closet indexers, concluding that investors could have been entitled to "billions of dollars" in damages.[1][17]

Collateralized Loan Obligations

With the global economy under pressure in 2020, debt markets came under scrutiny. Fideres was referenced in the media stating that significant losses will be felt by bondholders who own bonds rated BBB or below.[18][19]

Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme

Following the economic shutdown triggered by COVID-19, the UK government announced a business loan scheme to support affected businesses. At the time of the announcement, Fideres was quoted in a number of articles addressing the CBILS central proposals. [20][9]

type	Private
industry	Economic Consulting
foundation	2009
founders	Alberto Thomas, Steffen Hennig
location city	London
location country	United Kingdom
products	Antitrust Economics, Digital Markets, Discrimination, Environmental Litigation, Financial Litigation, Securities Litigation
num employees	62
homepage

History

Practice Areas

Services

Expert Services

Research

Gold Price Manipulation

Gold Price Manipulation

Corporate Bond Under-Pricing

Closet Indexers

Closet Indexers

Collateralized Loan Obligations

Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme

Academic Affiliations

Recent Cases

LIBOR Manipulation

FOREX Market Rigging

Recent Research and Litigation Support

See also

External links

References

Collateralized Loan Obligations

Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme

ISDAfix Rigging

Cryptocurrency Market Manipulation