Six banks fined record $3.4bn in currency manipulation probe

Some of the world’s biggest banks - UBS, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Royal Bank of Scotland, and HSBC have agreed to pay out $3.4 billion to settle an investigation into the institutions’ rigging of foreign exchange rates.

The probe accused banks of tampering with currency interbank rates on the largely unregulated $5.3 trillion-a-day foreign exchange market.

http://rt.com/business/204731-currency-manipulation-fine-billion/

 

In market-rigging case, US Justice Department treats corporate criminals like juvenile offenders

What is it about internet chat rooms that causes Wall Street traders to incriminate themselves?

Whatever it is, the egregious proof those chatrooms provide is not enough to force the Department of Justice to actually send people to jail for corporate crimes.

Another set of damning bank-chat transcripts led to a $4.25bn fine for the world’s biggest banks: JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Bank of America, Royal Bank of Scotland, HSBC and UBS. Authorities in the US, Britain and Switzerland charge that the bank traders conspired with one another in Internet chat rooms to manipulate benchmark currency prices for the euro, dollar and Swiss franc.

Like so many other cases of egregious financial fraud over the past several years, regulators used softball tactics to go easy on the banks. No bank was even forced to admit wrongdoing in the orders by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Regulators avoided court and settled for cash, which the traders won’t pay – the bank’s shareholders will. Officials presented a minimal amount of evidence, lacking the full details of the traders’ misconduct. They sought no judicial review.

In short, banks got away with their crimes for a pittance; their stocks even rose on the news of the settlements because the market believes the trouble is over.

Read More At: http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/nov/13/us-justice-department-criminals-juvenile-offenders