Currency investors risk leaving money on the table if they don'tsubmit claims on a $2.1 billion pot of settlement money paid bybanks accused of rigging foreign-exchange rates.

That's the message from Battea FX Group, which is competing inthe business of advising clients on how to get their share of thepayouts. Its seven former FX traders and executives are helpingfirms recover funds from class actions claiming that some of theworld's biggest banks conspired to manipulate the $5.1trillion-a-day currency market. Fourteen banks have settled,including Bank of America Corp., Barclays, Citigroup Inc., HSBCHoldings and Royal Bank of Scotland Group.

Here's how it works: Companies that traded currencies with thedealers from 2003 to 2015, including hedge funds, asset managers,pension funds, corporations and even other banks, hire Battea orone of its competitors. The advisory firm crunches data from dealsin spot, forwards, options, swaps and futures markets, seekingto recover as much money as possible via a court-appointed claimsadministrator, and it gets a contingency fee based on the amountawarded.

“Locating data for a 12-year period makes it a tall order,” saidPeter Kilbinger Hansen, chairman of Battea Class Action Services,which owns Battea FX Group and specializes in recovering funds fromsecurities class actions.

“It's an undertaking—we are very much out in the front linesworking with clients around the world to get their data organized,”Hansen said.

Open Season

The official claims process is expected to open in October, witha deadline for submissions likely to be set for March or April.Battea isn't the only firm looking at FX—Financial RecoveryTechnologies in Medford, Mass., and CAC Recovery in Naperville,Ill., are also advertising claims-filing services for the samesettlement pool.

In currencies, the task is complicated because claimants have toidentify a complex web of potentially millions of transactions,spanning multiple platforms around the world. Firms can processclaims without any outside help. But Battea says it aims to submit“bulletproof” applications using its know-how in FX markets, dataanalysis and legal procedures, according to Hansen. James Donahue,a vice president at Battea FX Group, formerly worked in currenciesat Bank of America Merrill Lynch, one of the banks thatsettled.

It's “a Herculean effort,” to analyze trading data, match it tothe relevant banks and then plug that information into the claimform, said Michael Lange, securities litigation counsel atFinancial Recovery Technologies, which also has staff withbackgrounds in FX.

Clients' Reticence

The currency scandal roiled the world's biggest financial marketand sparked a multi-year effort by central bankers and industryparticipants to stamp out misconduct, including the creation of theFX Global Code of conduct.

For investors seeking a share of the settlement funds being heldby an administrator, the decision to submit claims isn't asstraightforward as it might seem.

In a market where money managers do most of their currencytransactions with a handful of banks, there's still a reticence topursue settlement funds for fear of damaging relationships. Battea,which has more than 600 clients in financial markets, pointsout to prospective customers that the claims process isconfidential and won't embarrass their counterparties.

FRT says it doesn't see any stigma associated with filingclaims.

“The markets, for the most part, are impersonal—relationshipsare often business-oriented and practical rather than personal,”Lange said. “And there have certainly been so many waves ofscandals that, sadly, we're almost immune to it.”

The Battea FX team, assembled over a year ago, has traveled toNew York, Boston, London and Dublin to drum up business. They'reheaded back to Europe, and to Asia and Australia in the next twomonths.

“We've turned around some clients who said no because ofpolitics,” said Guy Kershberg, a vice president at Battea, whosemore than 30 years in FX included stints as a trader and treasurymanager. “We've converted some nos into yeses.”

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