Dec 2, 2021
Banks fined over collusion in currency trading
Banks including Barclays, RBS and HSBC have been fined €344m by the European Commission for colluding in the trading of foreign currencies. Its investigation focused on the trading of the G10 currencies, which include the British pound - or sterling, as well as the euro, US dollar, Japanese yen and the Swiss franc. The investigation found that some traders working for the five banks shared their plans and "Occasionally coordinated their trading strategies" through the Sterling Lads chatroom. Sometimes these workers would co-ordinate, using a practice known as "Standing down", where some would temporarily stop trading to avoid interfering with another trader. "These information exchanges enabled the traders to make informed market decisions on whether and when to sell or buy the currencies they had in their portfolios, as opposed to a situation where traders acting independently from each other take an inherent risk in taking these decisions," the commission said.
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