The European Commission fined Citigroup Inc., Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Barclays and MUFG Bank a total of 1.07 billion euros ($1.2 billion) for colluding on FX rates, in practice rigging the foreign exchange market.

Citigroup Inc. was fined 310.8 million euros, Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc – 249.2 million euros, while JPMorgan Chase & Co. will have to pay 228.8 million euros.

The three banks were part of the “Banana Split” cartel, along with Barclays, which also participated in the “Essex Express” cartel, where the other culprits were the Japanese MUFG Bank and RBS again.

The total fines for the “Banana Split” cartel amount to 811 million euros, while for the “Essex Express” cartel – 258 million euros.

The bank that reviled the cartels – the Swiss UBS will not pay financial penalties.

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One has to wonder how much they have profited from this rigging.

Citigroup Inc., Barclays Plc, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc and Japan’s MUFG Bank Ltd. will be fined 90 million Swiss francs (91 mln. USD) by the Switzerland’s competition regulator for their role in a cartel to rig the foreign exchange markets, several weeks after the EU authorities fined the five banks over 1 billion Euro for the same affair.

Citigroup is fined 28.5 million francs, Barclays – 27 million francs, RBS – 22.5 million francs, JPMorgan Chase & Co. – 9.5 million francs, and MUFG Bank Ltd. – 1.5 million francs, reveals a statement by the Switzerland’s Competition Commission, also known as Weko.

Traders, working at Barclays, Citigroup, JPMorgan, Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc and UBS , used chatrooms to fix leading currency exchange rates for over six years in a cartel known as the ‘Three-way banana split’.