(NBC NEWS) Financial regulators on both sides of the Atlantic imposed multibillion-dollar fines on five global banks Wednesday as part of investigations into rigging of key foreign exchange markets. The U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority has imposed fines totaling more than £1.1 billion ($1.7 billion) on Citibank, HSBC, JPMorgan Chase Bank, The Royal Bank of Scotland and Switzerland’s UBS, it announced. It added that the fines were the largest ever imposed by the FCA, or its predecessor the Financial Services Authority.
Meanwhile in the U.S., the Commodity Futures Trading Commission ordered the same banks to pay over $1.4 billion in penalties. The formal settlement is for the “attempted manipulation of, and for aiding and abetting other banks’ attempts to manipulate, global foreign exchange benchmark rates to benefit the positions of certain traders,” it said.
The more detailed breakdown shows that the FCA is fining Citibank $358 million, HSBC $343 million, JPMorgan Chase $352 million, RBS $344 million and UBS $371 million. The CFTC is imposing fines of $310 million each for Citibank and JPMorgan, $290 million each for RBS and UBS, and $275 million for HSBC. U.K. lender Barclays is also part of the investigation but did not settle.
