(Adds Vestager quote, details)
By Foo Yun Chee
BRUSSELS, Dec 2 (Reuters) - European Union antitrust
regulators fined Barclays, Credit Suisse, HSBC
and RBS a total of 344 million euros ($390
million) on Thursday for rigging the foreign exchange spot
trading market.
UBS avoided a 94 million euro fine as it had
alerted the European Commission about the cartel. The EU
competition regulator said the cartel had focused on forex spot
trading of G10 currencies.
HSBC's fine was the largest at 174.3 million euros, followed
by Credit Suisse at 83.3 million euros, Barclays at 54.3 million
and RBS at 32.5 million.
Barclays, HSBC and RBS admitted wrongdoing in return for a
cut in the penalty. RBS is now known as NatWest following a
rebranding last year.
The fines are the latest to hit banks, which have received
billions of euros in penalties worldwide over more than a decade
for the rigging of benchmarks used in many day-to-day financial
transactions.
"Today we complete our sixth cartel investigation in the
financial sector since 2013 and conclude the third leg of our
investigation into the foreign exchange spot trading market," EU
antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager said in a statement.
($1 = 0.8828 euros)
(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; editing by Carmel Crimmins)