Banks get token fines for rigging global foreign exchange rates - World Socialist Web Site
Two years after the major banks were caught rigging the world’s most important interest rate, the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor), six big banks have agreed to pay more than $4 billion in fines to international financial regulators for manipulating the multitrillion-dollar foreign exchange market.
The six banks—JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Bank of America, UBS, Royal Bank of Scotland and HSBC—agreed to pay a total of $4.3 billion to the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the British Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), and the Swiss financial regulator Finma.
The extent of the manipulation is enormous. The foreign exchange market accounts for $5.3 trillion in transactions every day—more than 20 times the size of the global stock and bond markets.
The total amount of the fines is nearly as large as the earlier Libor settlements, in which major banks paid over $6 billion. The US Justice Department is expected to announce an additional settlement related to the foreign exchange case.
