Banks face £2bn Forex rigging fines

Five of the world’s biggest banks are to pay fines totalling £2bn after regulators today lifted the lid on the latest scandal to rock the industry.

The penalties from three bodies including the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) relate to the rigging of the £3 trillion-a-day foreign exchange markets, adding to the large sums already collected over Libor fixing.

The FCA has issued record fines worth £1.1 billion on five banks for failing to control business practices in their foreign exchange trading operations.

They include state-backed Royal Bank of Scotland, which has been fined £217m by the FCA as well as $290m by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

The others involved in the settlement are Citibank, HSBC, JPMorgan Chase and UBS. Barclays said it continues to hold discussions with regulators.

The FCA penalties dwarf the £532m imposed by the regulator on banks and City brokers over the previous big regulatory scandal involving the manipulation of the interbank lending rate, Libor.