The EU Commission has issued fines on five banks for participating in a Foreign Exchange spot trading cartel. Four banks decided to settle the case. The UBS, Barclays, RBS and HSBC will pay a total fine of €261 million and Credit Suisse will be paying a fine of €83 million.
The investigation has focused on the trading of G10 currencies, and enlightened that certain traders were engaged in spot trading of them, executing transactions on behalf of the fined establishments, sharing information, and trading plans over a professional chatroom. The colluding partners have applied strategies to time transactions, avoiding the risk that would otherwise be involved in the situation.
UBS has benefitted from full immunity for informing the investigators about the existence of the cartels and avoided the aggregated fine around €94 million. The fines issued to other banks have been reduced for cooperation and furnishing of evidence.
