Five banks fined £1.1bn by UK financial watchdog

PanARMENIAN.Net - Five banks have been collectively fined £1.1bn by UK financial watchdog the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for failing to control business practices in foreign exchange trading operations, BBC News reports.

HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland, Swiss bank UBS and U.S. banks JP Morgan Chase and Citibank have all been fined. A separate probe into Barclays is continuing.

The FCA said the failings "undermine confidence in the UK financial system and put its integrity at risk".

The U.S. regulator, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, has fined the same banks $1.4bn. The Swiss regulator, FINMA, has separately fined UBS 134m Swiss francs.

The FCA said it had worked closely with the other regulators.

"Today's fine marks the gravity of the failings we found and firms need to take responsibility for putting it right. They must make sure their traders do not game the system to boost profits or leave the ethics of their conduct to compliance to worry about," said FCA chief executive Martin Wheatley.

The fines follow a year-long investigation by the FCA into claims that the foreign exchange market - in which banks and other financial firms buy and sell currencies between one another, was being rigged.

The massive market, in which $5.3 trillion worth of currencies are traded daily, dwarfs the stock and bond markets.

About 40% of the world's dealing is estimated to go through trading rooms in London.

The FCA's investigation focused on electronic communications between traders, including instant messaging systems and online chat rooms.

Earlier this year, FCA chief executive Martin Wheatley said that the currency rigging scandal was "every bit as bad" as the manipulation of Libor, the key global interest rate used to price loans, mortgages and set returns on investment products.