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LONDON (Alliance News) - Regulators in the US, UK and Switzerland Wednesday hit six banks, including HSBC Holdings PLC and Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC, with over USD4 billion in fines over foreign exchange failings and attempted manipulation of foreign exchange benchmark rates.
The FCA fined Citibank NA USD358 million, HSBC Bank PLC USD343 million, JPMorgan Chase Bank NA USD352 million, The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC USD344 million and UBS AG USD371 million, saying the banks failed to control business practices in their G10 spot foreign exchange trading operations. However, the FCA's investigation into Barclays PLC remains ongoing.
On the other side of the Atlantic, the US CFTC imposed fines of USD310 million each on Citibank and JPMorgan, USD290 million each for RBS and UBS, and USD275 million for HSBC. In Switzerland, regulator FINMA ordered UBS to disgorge a total of USD138 million.
Later, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, an independent bureau of the US Department of the Treasury, imposed a fines of USD250 million on Bank of America NA, and USD350 million each on Citibank and JPMorgan Chase Bank.
The foreign exchange market is known for its size and liquidity and has daily average turnover of USD5.3 trillion, according to regulators.
Earlier this month, HSBC took a charge of USD378 million over the foreign exchange investigation, more than enough to pay up to UK regulators, but not enough to meet the combined USD618 million of fines and penalties imposed Wednesday by the regulators. HSBC had specified it had provisioned only in relation to the investigation by the FCA. HSBC is expected to make up the shortfall in its report and accounts at the full year.
"HSBC does not tolerate improper conduct and will take whatever action is appropriate," HSBC said in a statement.
At the end of last month, RBS set aside GBP400 million for regulators' investigations into the foreign exchange market, in line with the size of its fine. However, RBS Wednesday reiterated that it remains in discussions with other governmental and regulatory authorities over the issues, including the US Department of Justice and other financial regulatory authorities. However, RBS said that the timing and amounts of further settlements and related litigation risks are uncertain and could be significant.
"We are continuing thorough investigations into the conduct of all employees who were involved in this part of the business," outgoing RBS Chairman Philip Hampton said in a statement. Hampton said RBS has already placed six individuals into a disciplinary process, three of whom are currently suspended, pending further investigation. RBS is reviewing the conduct of more than 50 current and former employees in its investigation of the matter.
Barclays PLC, which last month set aside GBP500 million in provisions in light of regulators' investigations into alleged foreign exchange manipulation, is yet to be fined. In a statement, the FCA said it will continue to investigate the British lender.
"In relation to Barclays Bank PLC, we will progress our investigation into that firm which will cover its G10 spot FX trading business and also wider FX business areas," the FCA said in a statement.
In a response, a Barclays spokesperson said it had decided against agreeing to a settlement on similar terms to the other banks.
"Barclays has engaged constructively with its regulators, including the UK FCA, and the US CFTC, in this round of settlement discussions, and has considered a settlement from these agencies on closely similar terms to those announced this morning," the spokesperson said.
"However, 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," the spokesperson added.
The FCA also announced an industry-wide remediation programme to ensure firms address the root causes of these failings and drive up standards across the market.
"We will require senior management at firms to take responsibility for delivering the necessary changes and attest that this work has been completed," the FCA said.
The FCA said the fines are the largest it, or predecessor the Financial Services Authority, have ever imposed, adding that this is the first time it has pursued a settlement with a group of banks in this way.
The UK regulator said that ineffective controls at the banks allowed G10 spot FX traders to put their banks' interests ahead of those of their clients, other market participants and the wider UK financial system. The banks failed to manage obvious risks around confidentiality, conflicts of interest and trading conduct, the FCA added.
It said the failing allowed traders at the banks to behave in an unacceptable way, sharing information about clients' activities which they had been trusted to keep confidential. Traders also attempted to manipulate G10 spot FX currency rates, including in collusion with traders at other firms.
According to the FCA, the failings took place between January 1, 2008 and October 15, 2013.
The US CFTC said it has ordered the banks to cease and desist from further violations, and take specified steps to implement and strengthen their internal controls and procedures, including the supervision of their FX traders, to ensure the integrity of their participation in the fixing of foreign exchange benchmark rates and internal and external communications by traders.
It said the failings at some banks started in 2009 and continued at each bank into 2012.
According to the CFTC, one of the primary benchmarks that the foreign exchange traders attempted to manipulate was the World Markets/Reuters Closing Spot Rates, the most widely referenced FX benchmark rates in the US and around the world.
Foreign exchange benchmark rates, such as the WM/R Rates, are used for pricing of cross-currency swaps, foreign exchange swaps, spot transactions, forwards, options, futures and other financial derivative instruments.
The CFTC said that traders at the banks coordinated their trading with traders at other banks in their attempts to manipulate the foreign exchange market, using private chat rooms to communicate and plan.
The US regulator also said the banks failed to adequately assess the risks associated with their foreign exchange traders participating in the fixing of certain benchmark rates and lacked adequate internal controls in order to prevent improper communications by traders.
In addition, the banks did not have sufficient policies, procedures and training specifically governing participation in trading around the foreign exchange benchmarks rates, the CFTC added.
Separately, the Bank of England published an independent report that cleared its own officials of any unlawful or improper behaviour in the foreign exchange market. The report found that no Bank of England official was aware of traders' improper behaviour.
However, one Bank of England official was aware that bank traders were sharing aggregated information about client orders for the purpose of 'matching'. Although that practice is "not necessarily improper", it "can increase the potential" for improper conduct, the report found. It noted that the official was uncomfortable with the practice but that the official did not escalate the matter to the appropriate person.
"This constituted an error in judgement that deserved criticism, but such criticism should be limited in that the individual was not acting in bad faith, nor was the individual involved in any unlawful or improper behaviour, nor aware of specific instances of such behaviour," the report found, according to the Bank of England statement.
The Bank of England said that its chief foreign exchange dealer, who was suspended in March, was dismissed on Tuesday, for "serious misconduct" over failing to adhere to its internal policies. The central bank emphasised that the disciplinary process was unrelated to the investigation conducted by Lord Grabiner, which led to the publication of the report.
The central bank's chief forex dealer was Martin Mallett.
"The individual?s dismissal was not at all related to the allegations investigated by Lord Grabiner, but as a result of information that came to light during the course of the bank?s initial internal review into allegations relating to the FX market and bank staff. This information related to the Bank?s internal policies, not to FX," a Bank of England spokesperson said in a statement.
The report made three recommendations in order to improve the central bank's documentation, education and training of its officials working with the foreign exchange market, and clarity over systems and controls around its market intelligence role. The Bank of England said it intends to implement the recommendations as quickly as possible.
By Samuel Agini; samagini@alliancenews.com; @samuelagini
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