Four of the banks plead guilty to U.S. criminal charges over manipulation of foreign exchange rates.
UBS AG also plead guilty to rigging benchmark interest rates.
Justice Department said, at four of the banks, euro dollar traders referred to themselves as members of “The Cartel”, using an electronic chat room and coded language to manipulate exchange rates to increase profits.
British banks pleading guilty to one felony count of conspiracy to fix prices and rig bids for U.S. dollars and euros in the foreign exchange spot market include Barclays Plc who will pay $650 million and Royal Bank of Scotland Plc who will pay $395 million. Both banks will agreed to paying the criminal penalties.
To settle with the New York State Department of Financial Services, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the UK's Financial Conduct Authority, Barclays will pay an additional $1.3 billion. New York regulator said Barclays agreed to fire eight bank employees involved with rigging foreign exchange rates.
For violating an earlier non-prosecution agreement with the U.S. Justice Department to resolve a probe of the manipulation of the London interbank offered rate or Libor and other benchmark interest rates, Barclays will pay an additional, $60 million criminal penalty.
For breaching a 2012 non-prosecution agreement with the U.S. Justice Department over Libor, Swiss-based UBS plead guilty to manipulating Libor and other benchmark interest rates. The bank agreed to pay a $203 million criminal penalty.
Following agreements with many of the same banks in November 2014, total penalties for currency trading manipulation are close to $9 billion.
The U.S. Fed fined Bank of America Corporation (BAC-NYSE) $205 million for unsound practices in foreign exchange.
Contributed by Millennium Traders
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