HSBC, Credit Suisse, Barclays and RBS Fined $400 mln over ‘Sterling Lads’ forex cartel
Posted: Tue Dec 07, 2021 2:15 am
The European Commission imposed a collective fine of almost 400 million US dollars on four different major banks: SBC Holdings Plc, Credit Suisse Group AG, Barclays Plc, and Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc. The reason for the fine was their role in the so-called “Sterling Lads” Forex cartel.
Those four banks were found guilting of manipulating the market through sharing confidential information and trading plans, using an online chat room that was named “Sterling Lads”.
According to the Commission’s statement, the cartel was managed by traders who shared information that allowed them to “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 investigation into the cartel has been going on since 2013.
The commission showed leniency to a fifth bank, named UBS Group AG, and did not fine it with 94 million because it left the cartel in the first place.
Stuff like this makes me wonder about claims about how manipulated the market is.
Those four banks were found guilting of manipulating the market through sharing confidential information and trading plans, using an online chat room that was named “Sterling Lads”.
According to the Commission’s statement, the cartel was managed by traders who shared information that allowed them to “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 investigation into the cartel has been going on since 2013.
The commission showed leniency to a fifth bank, named UBS Group AG, and did not fine it with 94 million because it left the cartel in the first place.
Stuff like this makes me wonder about claims about how manipulated the market is.