BlackRock Inc., the world’s biggest money manager, won dismissal of a lawsuit brought by two pension funds that accused the company of collecting “grossly excessive” compensation from securities-lending returns linked to iShares Inc., Bloomberg News reported yesterday. U.S. District Judge Aleta Trauger said that the law governing securities lending doesn’t authorize investors, like the pension funds, to sue. The suit was filed in January by Laborers Local 265 Pension Fund, based in Cincinnati, and Plumbers and Pipefitters Local No. 572 Pension Fund, of Nashville. The pension funds alleged that BlackRock affiliates collected 40 percent of revenue earned from securities lending transactions as compensation. Judge Trauger gave the pension funds until September 17 to file an amended complaint.
