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* Barclays, C.Suisse, HSBC, NatWest fined 344 mln euros
* Whistleblower UBS avoided 94 mln euro fine
* EU antitrust fine latest to hit banks for forex rigging
(Adds Barclays, Credit Suisse, HSBC decline to comment, UBS
comment, details)
By Foo Yun Chee
BRUSSELS, Dec 2 (Reuters) - EU antitrust regulators on
Thursday fined Barclays, Credit Suisse, HSBC
and NatWest 344 million euros ($390 million)
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, which was set
up via a chatroom known as "Sterling Lads". 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.
Barclays, Credit Suisse and HSBC declined to comment.
NatWest said the misconduct took place in a single chatroom and
involved a former employee about a decade ago and that its
culture and controls have changed fundamentally during the past
ten years.
UBS said: "This is a legacy matter where UBS was the first
bank to disclose potential misconduct and we are pleased the
matter is resolved."
The EU competition enforcer said the forex rigging was done
via the chatroom. A previous cartel sanctioned in 2019 and
involving some of the same banks featured chatrooms called Semi
Grumpy Old Men, Three Way Banana Split, Two and a Half Men and
Only Marge.
The traders involved exchanged sensitive information and
trading plans and occasionally coordinated their trading
strategies via the chatroom on whether and when to sell or buy
the currencies in their portfolios, the Commission said.
The fines are the latest to hit banks, which have received
billions of euros in penalties worldwide over more than a
decade, including 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.
Barclays, Citigroup, JP Morgan, MUFG and RBS
were fined a combined 1.07 billion euros in May 2019 by the EU
antitrust authorities for manipulating the foreign exchange
market via two cartels, between 2007 to 2013 for one group and
between 2009 to 2012 for the other.
($1 = 0.8828 euros)
(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee, additional reporting by Iain
Winters and Huw Jones in London and Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi and
Oliver Hirt in Zurich; editing by Carmel Crimmins and Jane
Merriman)
