Barclays And RBS Fined Over Forex Abuses

Barclays (LSE: BARC.L - news) , Royal Bank of Scotland (LSE: RBS.L - news) and three other banks have been fined almost £4bn over the manipulation of foreign exchange and currency rates.

Four of the institutions - JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup (NYSE: C - news) , Barclays and RBS - agreed to plead guilty to US criminal charges over manipulation of foreign exchange rates, the US Department of Justice said.

The fifth bank, UBS (NYSEArca: FBGX - news) , will plead guilty to rigging benchmark interest rates, the Justice Department said.

Barclays will pay $650m (£418m) in criminal penalties and RBS $395m (£254m).

JPMorgan Chase will pay $550m (£353m) and Citigroup will pay $925m (£595m) in criminal fines as part of their guilty pleas.

Barclays also will pay an additional $1.3bn (£836m) to settle with the New York state Department of Financial Services, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), authorities said.

As part of the New York banking regulator's agreement, Barclays will fire eight bank employees involved with rigging foreign exchange rates, the New York regulator said.

The amount Barclays will pay to the FCA is £284.4m - the largest financial penalty ever imposed by the FCA.

Georgina Philippou, the FCA's acting director of enforcement and market oversight, said: "This is another example of a firm allowing unacceptable practices to flourish on the trading floor.

"Instead of addressing the obvious risks associated with its business, Barclays allowed a culture to develop which put the firm's interests ahead of those of its clients and which undermined the reputation and integrity of the UK financial system."

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