Banks being probed for interest rate manipulation face potentially tens of billions of dollars in claims from dozens of lawsuits in the US from cities, insurers, investors and lenders who say they were hurt by the allegedly fudged rates.

The allegations come from parties as varied as individual investors and institutions like Charles Schwab that say they were cheated out of returns on bonds with artificially low rates, to cities and hedge funds with financial contracts squeezed by traders who allegedly colluded with each other.