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Banks Citi and HSBC dominate the skyline of Canary Wharf, London.
Barclays, Citigroup, J. Morgan, MUFG and Royal Bank of Scotland were fined 1.07 billion euros ($ 1.2 billion) by the US 's competition regulators. European Union for rigging the spot foreign exchange market for 11 currencies.
The Swiss bank UBS was exonerated from a fine of 285 million euros, because it had alerted the existence of two cartels to the European Commission. The financial sector has been facing fines of one billion euros worldwide over the past decade for rigging benchmarks.
"Businesses and individuals rely on banks to exchange money to carry out transactions abroad.Currency trading activities are one of the largest markets of the world, worth billions of euros each day, "said Commissioner Margrethe Vestager in a press release Thursday.
"Today, we are fining Barclays, the Royal Bank of Scotland, Citigroup, JP Morgan and MUFG Bank, which clearly indicate that the Commission will not tolerate any damages." behavior of collusion in any sector of the financial markets, the integrity of the sector to the detriment of the European economy and consumers, "added Vestager.
The survey conducted by the EU over the last six years has revealed that individual operators of various banks in charge of forex trading – a form of trading executed during the day – were exchanging sensitive information and trading plans via various online business forums. .
"The exchange of information ….. allowed them to make informed market decisions about the sale or purchase of the currencies in their portfolios and when," the Commission said. in his report.
He further stated that most of the operators knew each other personally and participated all day long in the Bloomberg Terminals Multilateral Discussion Forums, participating in extensive discussions on various topics, including updates to their business activities.
Barclays declined to comment when he was contacted by CNBC. In addition, a spokesman for RBS told CNBC that the bank was pleased to reach a settlement with the regulators.
"Today's fine reminds us how much the bank has lost in the past and we absolutely condemn the behavior of those responsible." This kind of behavior has not its place in the bank we are today, our culture and our controls have fundamentally changed in the last ten years, "said the spokesman.
A similar case is pending before the US regulators: Barclays, BNP Paribas, Citigroup, JP Morgan, Royal Bank of Scotland and UBS have pleaded guilty and were fined more than 2.8 billion dollars.
US regulators have said that exchange rate rigging was allegedly carried out through discussion forums with names such as "The Cartel", "The Mafia" and "The Bandit's Club", through tactics. including the name "Front running", "slamming the fence". , "" paint the screen "and" get out the dirt ".
Barclays and RBS shares are trading down, but UBS has slightly advanced. At the same time, J.P. Morgan and Citigroup shares fell slightly in pre-market transactions.
-Reuters contributed to this report
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