Page 33 - Barclays Bank (B)

“Benjamin Lawsky, the head of the Department of

Financial Services (DFS), ….said: “Put simply, Barclays
employees helped rig the foreign exchange market.

They engaged in a brazen ‘heads I win, tails you lose’
scheme to rip off their clients.”’ (1)

Whilst US attorney general Loretta Lynch said:

"They acted as partners – rather than competitors – in
an effort to push the exchange rate in directions

favorable to their banks but detrimental to many

others," she said, using "coded language to conceal
their collusion". (2)

The four US regulators and the FCA levied $5.7bn in fines directly

for manipulating foreign exchange benchmarks. Additionally, UBS
and Barclays were ordered to pay $263m to the Department of

Justice because their activity violated agreements signed when
the banks were fined for Libor rigging.

Despite these huge fines, which took the combined penalties for

foreign exchange manipulation to $10bn, shares in the banks
surged on investors’ relief that they were not larger. Barclays had

set aside £2 billion in relation to the investigations but was not

judged to have breached a deferred prosecution agreement with
the Department of Justice (DoJ).

Barclays has agreed to pay a combined total of £1,534 million

(sterling equivalent). In common with other financial institutions
announcing FX settlements today with the DOJ, Barclays has also

agreed to plead guilty to a violation of US anti-trust law.