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The two settlement decisions are the result of an investigation into Barclays, the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), Citigroup, JPMorgan, UBS and MUFG Bank in relation to 11 currencies, including the euro, dollar, sterling and yen.
The first decision imposed a total fine of €811.2m on Barclays, RBS, Citigroup and JP Morgan in relation to a case referred to as the “Forex – Three Way Banana Split” cartel.
The traders in this cartel were from UBS, Barclays, RBS, Citigroup and JP Morgan, and communicated in three different online chatrooms between December 2007 and January 2013.
The second decision by the Commission related to the so-called “Forex – Essex Express” cartel and resulted in a total fine of €257.7m for Barclays, RBS and MUFG Bank.
Traders from UBS, Barclays, RBS and Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi (now MUFG Bank) communicated through two chatrooms, the Commission said, between December 2009 and July 2012.
According to the Commission: “UBS received full immunity for revealing the existence of the cartels, thereby avoiding an aggregate fine of circa €285m.”
Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, in charge of competition policy, said the decisions would “send a clear message that the Commission will not tolerate collusive behaviour in any sector of the financial markets”.
She added: “The behaviour of these banks undermined the integrity of the sector at the expense of the European economy and consumers.”
The Commission’s investigation found that some individual traders in charge of FX trading on behalf of the banks exchanged “sensitive information and trading plans”, which then “enabled them to make informed market decisions on whether to sell or buy the currencies they had in their portfolios and when”.