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LONDON, May 20 (Reuters) - Barclays Plc pleadedguilty to a U.S. criminal charge and was fined $2.4 billion byU.S. and British authorities on Wednesday for manipulatingforeign exchange rates.
The British bank also agreed to fire eight employees as aresult of the settlement, according to the New York Departmentof Financial Services (NYDFS).
The bank will pay $710 million to the U.S. Department ofJustice, $485 million to the NYDFS, $400 million to theCommodities Futures Trading Commission and $342 to the U.S.Federal Reserve. It was also fined a record 284 million pounds,or $441 million, by Britain's Financial Conduct Authority.
Barclays was one of five banks to be fined a total of $5.7billion by authorities on Wednesday. Its fine was far higherthan the other banks, as it did not take part in a groupsettlement in November, because it wanted to include thepowerful NYDFS in its settlement.
Barclays had set aside $3.2 billion for potential finesrelated to past FX trading. It could face further punishmentrelated to electronic systems used in FX trading, which theNYDFS said it will continue to investigate.
Benjamin Lawsky, New York superintendent of financialservices, said a number of Barclays employees involved in themisconduct were no longer employed by the bank and four werefired last month, including its global head of FX spot tradingin London and a director on the FX spot trading desk in NewYork.
Lawsky ordered the bank to fire another four staff who itstill employed, including a vice president on the emergingmarkets trading desk in New York and two directors on the FXspot trading desk in New York. (Reporting by Steve Slater; Editing by Kirstin Ridley)
Barclays (BARC)