Tag: RBS

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Article: Swiss Bank UBS To Pay $342 Million Currency Manipulation Fine, Plead Guilty On LIBOR

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Swiss Bank UBS To Pay $342 Million Currency Manipulation Fine, Plead Guilty On LIBOR

Antoine Gara, 20 May 2015

UBS said on Wednesday morning it would pay a $342 million fine for its involvement in manipulating the foreign exchange market, averting criminal prosecution as a result of its cooperation in the multi-year probe. The Swiss banking giant, however, will plead guilty to one count of wire fraud for its role in manipulating interest rate benchmarks such as LIBOR, paying a $202 million fine, and tearing up a previously agreed 2012 deferred prosecution agreement with U.S. regulators.

The collective $545 million in fines and guilty plea will help UBS put to rest some of its largest legal issues in the United States and won’t have a financial impact given the bank’s exiting provisions for litigation. Continue reading “Article: Swiss Bank UBS To Pay $342 Million Currency Manipulation Fine, Plead Guilty On LIBOR”

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Article: 5 big banks pay $5.4 billion for rigging currencies

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5 big banks pay $5.4 billion for rigging currencies

Virginia Harrison and Mark Thompson, 20 May 2015

Citigroup (C), Barclays (BCS), JP Morgan Chase (JPM), and Royal Bank of Scotland (RBSPF)were fined more than $2.5 billion by the U.S. after pleading guilty to conspiring to manipulate the price of dollars and euros. The four banks, plus UBS (UBS) , have also been fined $1.6 billion by the Federal Reserve, and Barclays will pay regulators another $1.3 billion to settle related claims.

The first four banks operated what they described as “The Cartel” from as early as 2007, using online chatrooms and coded language to influence the twice-daily setting of benchmarks in an effort to increase their profits. The guilty banks “participated in a brazen display of collusion and foreign exchange rate market manipulation,” said U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch. Continue reading “Article: 5 big banks pay $5.4 billion for rigging currencies”

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Article: UBS to Pay Over $500 Million in Fines for Manipulating Currencies and Libor

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UBS to Pay Over $500 Million in Fines for Manipulating Currencies and Libor

Chad Bray, 08 March 2021

The Swiss bank UBS said on Wednesday that it would pay more than $500 million in fines to the authorities in the United States for its role in the manipulation of currency markets and benchmark interest rates.

UBS said it would not face a criminal charge over currency misconduct but would be required to separately plead guilty to a criminal charge for its prior conduct over the manipulation of the interest rates, including the London interbank offered rate, or Libor, after the Justice Department tore up a 2012 nonprosecution agreement. Continue reading “Article: UBS to Pay Over $500 Million in Fines for Manipulating Currencies and Libor”

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Article: JP Morgan agrees to pay $100 million to settle a Currency Manipulation Lawsuit in New York

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JP Morgan agrees to pay $100 million to settle a Currency Manipulation Lawsuit in New York

Giambrone, 25 January 2015

Financial service giant JPMorgan Chase & Co. has reached a $100 million settlement to resolve a U.S. antitrust lawsuit that sought damages for the alleged rigging of foreign currency markets, in which investors accused 12 major banks of rigging prices in the $5 trillion-a-day foreign exchange market in the case of In re: Foreign Exchange Benchmark Rates Antitrust Litigation, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 13-07789.

JP Morgan will pay about $100 million and settled the case after mediation with Kenneth Feinberg, an American attorney, specializing in mediation and alternative dispute resolution. Bank of America, Citigroup, HSBC, RBS and UBS also settled with regulators in November for an additional $3.3 billion. Continue reading “Article: JP Morgan agrees to pay $100 million to settle a Currency Manipulation Lawsuit in New York”

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Article: Arrested RBS forex trader named as Paul Nash: sources

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Arrested RBS forex trader named as Paul Nash: sources

Jamie McGeever, Kirstin Ridley, 08 January 2015

LONDON (Reuters) – Royal Bank of Scotland currency trader Paul Nash has become the first individual arrested in connection with a global inquiry into alleged manipulation in the foreign exchange market, sources familiar with the matter said on Thursday.

Nash, who was suspended by RBS in 2013, was named by the sources as the man arrested in Billericay, southeast England, on Dec. 19. One of the sources said his arrest came only days before he emigrated to Canada.

Nash emigrated to Canada on Christmas Day and has rented out his family home, the source said. His arrest was not by appointment, as is typical in such cases, but was an “arrest and raid”, the source added.

Nash, who has not been charged with any offense, appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Dec. 23 over variations to his bail conditions, a court official confirmed. These included that he would reside at a specified address in British Columbia.

Britain’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) said only that a 48-year-old man had appeared at the London court on Dec. 23 in connection with a global investigation into allegations of manipulation in the $5.3 trillion-a-day forex market.

The increasingly aggressive agency, which is preparing for the trials this year of individuals alleged to have manipulated global benchmark interest rates, said last July that it might file the first charges in the high-profile inquiry this year.

About 30 forex traders have been put on leave, suspended or fired as prosecutors and regulators continue to examine allegations of wrongdoing in the world’s largest market.

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Article: JP Morgan Agrees New Settlement for FX Manipulation

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JP Morgan Agrees New Settlement for FX Manipulation

Profit & Loss, 7 January 2015

JP Morgan has agreed a settlement, believed to be worth $100 million, in an antitrust litigation lawsuit brought against 12 major banks for alleged manipulation of the FX market.

The bank submitted a letter to judge Lorna Scholfield of the Court of the Southern District of New York, stating that it had reached a settlement agreement with the plaintiffs in this litigation and that is planning to file a copy of the settlement terms with the court for approval by the end of January.

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Article: Common currency: a forex scandal that epitomises the blindness in the banking crisis

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Common currency: a forex scandal that epitomises the blindness in the banking crisis

Andre Spicer, 16 November 2014

The biggest open secret in the financial world has been confirmed. Regulators in the UK, the US and Switzerland have announced massive fines for some of the world’s largest banks for a manipulation of global currency markets that in its callous ubiquity says so much about the banking behaviours that sparked the global financial crisis.

Fines levied by the UK regulator add up to £1.1 billion. The US regulator announced fines of $1.4 billion. Banks hit by these fines include UBS, Citi, JP Morgan, HSBC and RBS. Barclays is yet to come to a settlement on the back of the investigations.

The probe uncovered individuals traders within large banks who were working together in trading clubs which had names you would expect from the “ruthless narcissists” on BBC TV show, The Apprentice. These included “the players”, “the 3 musketeers” and “1 team, 1 dream”.

These clubs worked together to influence the WM Reuters 4pm fix – essentially the official number used to fix currency rates. It shapes everything from how much we pay for currency when we go overseas to how much our pension fund pays when it wants to buy into an offshore investment. This is one of the core numbers in global finance.

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Article: Regulators fine global banks $4.3 billion in currency investigation

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Regulators fine global banks $4.3 billion in currency investigation

Kirstin Ridley, Joshua Franklin, Aruna Viswanatha, 12 November 2014

Regulators fined six major banks a total of $4.3 billion for failing to stop traders from trying to manipulate the foreign exchange market, following a yearlong global investigation.

HSBC Holdings Plc, Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, JPMorgan Chase & Co, Citigroup Inc, UBS AG and Bank of America Corp all faced penalties resulting from the inquiry, which has put the largely unregulated $5-trillion-a-day market on a tighter leash, accelerated the push to automate trading and ensnared the Bank of England.

Authorities accused dealers of sharing confidential information about client orders and coordinating trades to boost their own profits. The foreign exchange benchmark they allegedly manipulated is used by asset managers and corporate treasurers to value their holdings.

Dealers used code names to identify clients without naming them and swapped information in online chatrooms with pseudonyms such as “the players”, “the 3 musketeers” and “1 team, 1 dream.” Those who were not involved were belittled, and traders used obscene language to congratulate themselves on quick profits made from their scams, authorities said.

Wednesday’s fines bring total penalties for benchmark manipulation to more than $10 billion over two years. Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority levied the biggest penalty in the history of the City of London, $1.77 billion, against five of the lenders.

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Article: Six banks fined £2.6bn by regulators over forex failings

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Six banks fined £2.6bn by regulators over forex failings

BBC NEws , 12 November 2014

Six banks have been collectively fined £2.6bn by UK and US regulators over their traders’ attempted manipulation of foreign exchange rates. HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland, Swiss bank UBS and US banks JP Morgan Chase, Citibank and Bank of America have all been fined.

A separate probe into Barclays is continuing. The fines were issued by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and two US regulators.

The country’s Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) issued fines of $1.4bn to five banks, while the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) added $950m in further fines to three lenders. Separately, the Swiss regulator, FINMA, has penalised UBS 134m Swiss francs.

Barclays, which had been expected to announce a similar deal to the other banks, said it would not be settling at this time.

“After discussions with other regulators and authorities, we have concluded that it is in the interests of the company to seek a more general coordinated settlement,” it said in a statement.

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Article: Why I Will Never Buy Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc, HSBC Holdings plc And Standard Chartered PLC

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Why I Will Never Buy Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc, HSBC Holdings plc And Standard Chartered PLC

Rupert Hargreaves, 10 November 2014

The godfather of value investing, Benjamin Graham, made it quite clear that the process of investing is nothing like speculation: “An investment operation is one which, upon thorough analysis, promises safety of principal and a satisfactory return.” On the other hand, speculation is more akin to gambling, with no return guaranteed.

With this in mind, it’s easy to arrive at the conclusion that banks, which rely on leverage and trading to make a living, can never be deemed true ‘investments’ due to the speculative nature of their businesses. And this is the reason why I’m staying away from banks like Royal Bank of Scotland (LSE: RBS), HSBC (LSE: HSBA) and Standard Chartered (LSE: STAN). Continue reading “Article: Why I Will Never Buy Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc, HSBC Holdings plc And Standard Chartered PLC”

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Article: Swiss probe banks over foreign exchange market

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Swiss probe banks over foreign exchange market

BBC News, 31 March 2014

RBS, Barclays, UBS, Credit Suisse, Zuercher Kantonal Bank, Julius Baer, JP Morgan and Citigroup are being probed by Swiss competition commission, Weko.

“Evidence exists that these banks colluded to manipulate exchange rates in foreign currency trades,” Weko said.

The regulator opened a preliminary investigation last October. Weko said the information it had so far suggested that most important exchange rates are affected.

Authorities worldwide are investigating allegations that some foreign exchange traders have colluded in setting certain key exchange rates in the foreign exchange market, resulting in big profits. Continue reading “Article: Swiss probe banks over foreign exchange market”

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Article: HSBC dragged into forex probe, reveals profits jump

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HSBC dragged into forex probe, reveals profits jump

AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE, 04 November 2013

LONDON: A worldwide probe into suspected rigging of foreign exchange deals has reached Europe’s biggest bank HSBC, the bank revealed when it also announced a jump in quarterly profits.
The London-based bank said in its earnings statement that British regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority, is conducting investigations alongside several other global agencies into a number of firms, including HSBC, “relating to trading on the foreign exchange market”.

HSBC said it was “cooperating with the investigations which are at an early stage”.

It comes as the British bank announced a 28-percent increase in net profit to $3.2 billion (2.37 billion euros) during the three months to the end to September on major cost-cutting and lower bad debt charges.

HSBC had posted profit after tax of $2.5 billion in the third quarter of 2012.

“Revenue was stable in the third quarter (of 2013), influenced by the mixed global macroeconomic picture,” HSBC chief executive Stuart Gulliver said in a statement.
“Our home markets of the UK and Hong Kong contributed more than half of the group’s underlying profit before tax.”

Gulliver added: “Hong Kong continues to benefit from its close economic relationship with mainland China. We remain well positioned to capitalise on improving economic conditions in these markets.”

HSBC said it would continue to focus on reducing its cost base after savings of $400 million over the third quarter and total cuts since the start of 2011 of $4.5 billion.

“This is well in excess of the target we set out to achieve by the end of 2013. We re-invested part of these savings in risk and compliance, increasing headcount by 1,600 since December 2012,” Gulliver said.

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Article: Former Royal Bank of Scotland trader linked to currency market fixing

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Former Royal Bank of Scotland trader linked to currency market fixing

Jill Treanor, 12 OCtober 2013

Electronic messages that Royal Bank of Scotland handed to the City regulator in connection with potential manipulation of the £3tn-a day currency market are reported to have been sent by the bailed-out bank’s former trader Richard Usher.

The messages are said to be among those handed to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) by the bank, which is 81% owned by the taxpayer.

Usher, who could not be reached for comment, is now the head of spot trading at JP Morgan in London. He has been listed as a member of a Bank of England committee that polices a voluntary code of group practice for the markets.

The regulatory review by the FCA, which has not yet escalated its inquiries into a formal investigation, implies no wrongdoing by Usher, according to the Bloomberg news agency, which revealed his identity.

The analysis of the electronic messages is the latest move by regulators to test the integrity of benchmarks used to price financial products in the light of the Libor-rigging scandal as well as manipulation of gas prices. The investigation was triggered by reports in the Guardian last year.

The FCA said in June it was looking at foreign exchange markets after Bloomberg reported that traders at some banks were sharing information about their positions through instant messages. These were said to be a way to manipulate an index compiled by WM/Reuters and based on prices of currencies for a 60-second period.

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Article: RBS releases documents over alleged currency manipulation

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RBS releases documents over alleged currency manipulation

Jill Treanor, 09 October 2013

Royal Bank of Scotland has handed the City regulator messages sent by one of its former traders in the latest twist in an investigation into potential manipulation of currency rates.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) began an investigation into the £3tn-a-day foreign exchange market in June following allegations that traders at major banks had found ways to manipulate a closely followed currency benchmark. Continue reading “Article: RBS releases documents over alleged currency manipulation”

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Article: Royal Bank of Scotland fined £390 million for LIBOR failings

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Royal Bank of Scotland fined £390 million for LIBOR failings

John Fitzsimons, 06 February 2013

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has been fined £390 million for its attempts at manipulating the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR).

LIBOR is essentially the rate at which banks lend money to each other. Every day banks are required to submit their interbank borrowing rates confidentially to Thomson Reuters, which then works out LIBOR on behalf of the British Bankers’ Association. For more on LIBOR and why it matters, check out What is Libor?

An FSA investigation found that over a four year period between January 2006 and November 2010 employees of RBS engaged in all sorts of activities that would lead to incorrect LIBOR submissions. By lying about what its real interest rates were, RBS was in a position to manipulate the market, allowing its traders to cash in.

The FSA’s investigation found at least 219 documented requests for inappropriate submissions, with 21 individuals involved identified.

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