Five banks have been fined a total of 90 million Swiss francs (US$90.9 million) for colluding to rig the foreign exchange market, Switzerland’s competition authority announced on Thursday, June 6.
The fines are the latest fall out from a scam which led to them being fined €1.07 billion (US$1.20 billion) last month by the European Union for manipulating the multi-trillion dollar forex market.
Barclays, Citigroup, JP Morgan, and Royal Bank of Scotland were punished by the Swiss authority, known as WEKO, after it stated it found “several anti-competitive arrangements between banks in foreign exchange spot trading.”
Also punished was Japan’s MUFG Bank for its part in the scam, which involved traders coordinating their activities through internet chatrooms.
Traders of Barclays, Citigroup, JPMorgan, Royal Bank of Scotland, and UBS participated in the so-called “Three way banana split” cartel from 2007 to 2013, WEKO stated. Participants in the “Essex express” cartel, which ran from 2009 to 2012, were traders of Barclays, MUFG Bank, RBS, and UBS.
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