Regulators in the US, Britain and Switzerland ordered five banks to pay about €2.6bn in fines in the first wave of penalties since authorities began a global probe into the rigging of key foreign-exchange benchmarks last year.

Global regulators have imposed penalties totalling $3.4bn on five major banks, including UBS, HSBC and Citigroup for failing to prevent their traders from attempting to manipulate foreign exchange markets.

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.

European Union antitrust regulators are examining the possible manipulation of currency rates, following a Swiss probe into whether banks colluded to manipulate the $5.3 trillion (€3.9tn)-a-day foreign exchange market.

The US owner of the New York Stock Exchange will take over the running of Libor, the benchmark interest rate at the centre of a global rigging scandal, wresting control from a British bankers’ trade body for a token £1 (€1.16).

Bribery and rate-rigging took place at Royal Bank of Scotland even after it was bailed out by the taxpayer, regulators revealed yesterday, as they fined the banking giant £391m (€453m).

White sugar fell to a three-month low in London on forecasts for more supplies from Brazil, the world’s largest producer.

The euro’s modest upturn against the dollar since the start of the year will soon run out of steam, according to a Reuters poll of over 60 analysts whose euro currency forecasts were the lowest since September 2010.

OIL prices dropped nearly $1 to below $60 a barrel yesterday.

CRUDE oil futures rose in New York yesterday after a blast damaged an oil pipeline in Iraq, renewing concerns that violence will disrupt exports from the Middle East’s fifth-biggest oil producer.

A DAVY Stockbrokers sponsored $900 million hedge fund, listed on the Irish stock exchange, is being investigated by the US securities and exchange commission following allegations that the value of the fund reported to investors was inflated.

A $900m (€755.62m) hedge fund listed on the Irish stock exchange is at the centre of an investigation by the US securities and exchange commission, into allegations that the value of the fund reported to investors were overstated.