(Adds background on the lawsuits)
By Andrew Longstreth
NEW YORK, Aug 13 (Reuters) - A federal judicial panel onWednesday ordered that 18 lawsuits alleging a conspiracy tomanipulate gold prices be consolidated into one proceeding inNew York.
The cases will be sent to U.S. District Judge ValerieCaproni in Manhattan, who has already been overseeing more thantwo dozen cases.
The lawsuits name the multinational banks that make up theLondon Gold Market Fixing Ltd, the company operating the globalgold price benchmark known as the 'fix'.
The century-old gold fix is a standard price for the metalthat the banks set twice a day over the telephone. A variety ofgold traders claim they were harmed by a scheme to manipulatethe fix.
Sending the cases to Caproni of New York appeared to be arelatively easy decision for the U.S. Judicial Panel onMultidistrict Litigation, which considers requests toconsolidate related lawsuits in U.S. federal courts.
Only one of the 18 lawsuits was not filed in New York,according to the panel.
Bank of Nova Scotia, HSBC, SocieteGenerale and Barclays make up the London GoldMarket Fixing Ltd.
Deutsche Bank withdrew in May after two decadesbut is still a party to the suits. (Reporting by Andrew Longstreth; Editing by James Dalgleish andNick Zieminski)