LONDON—The U.K.’s financial regulator has fined five big banks a total of $3.38 billion to resolve allegations that they attempted to manipulate foreign exchange rates. All have agreed to the fine.
The five are:
Citibank, HSBC, JPMorgan Chase, RBS, and UBS. Depending on where the banks are headquartered, it will mean a payment of $1.4 billion to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and about £1.1 billion ($1.75 billion) to the U.K.'s Financial Conduct Authority. UBS will also make a payment in Switzerland.
According to U.K. regulators, between 2008 and 2013 traders at the banks took advantage of lax controls to share confidential information and collude with their counterparts at other institutions in an effort to fix rates and increase profits.
British regulators said traders used private online chatrooms to coordinate their buying and selling to shift currency prices in their favor, aiming to making a profit for their banks at the expense of clients.
The traders called themselves "the players", "the 3 musketeers" and the "the A-team."
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