Banks fined $1.2bn over forex with Citigroup hit hardest
Five banks have agreed to pay fines for colluding on forex trading with Citigroup getting a €310.8m million-euro penalty
Brussels — Citigroup, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), and JPMorgan Chase are among five banks that have agreed to pay the EU fines totaling $1.2bn for colluding on forex trading strategies. Citigroup was hit hardest with a €310.8m penalty, followed by fines of €249.2m and €228.8 for RBS and JPMorgan, respectively, the European Commission said on Thursday. Barclays was fined €210.3m and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) must pay nearly €70m as part of the settlement with the EU’s antitrust regulator. Traders ran two cartels on online chatrooms, swapping sensitive information and trading plans that allowed them to make informed decisions to buy or sell currencies, the regulator said. Many of them knew each other, calling one chatroom on the Bloomberg terminal the“Essex Express n’ the Jimmy” because all of the traders but one met on a commuter train from Essex to London. Other names for rooms were the “Three Way Banana Split” and “Semi-Grumpy Old Men”. “Forex spot trading act...
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