Barclays hit with £1.53bn penalty – the biggest bank fine in UK history

The world’s five largest banks are together set to fork out $5.7bn (£3.6bn) in fines.

While JPMorgan, Barclays, Citigroup and RBS have agreed to plead guilty to US authorities, UBS is set to plead guilty to rigging benchmark interest rates.

Barclays is set to pay £1.53bn – the biggest fine in UK history – for rigging foreign exchange markets. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) ordered Barclays to pay £284.4m, as part of the bank’s £1.5bn settlement with the FCA and four US regulators.

Barclays is sacking eight employees involved in manipulating foreign exchange markets.

Antony Jenkins, Barclays’ chief executive, said: “The misconduct at the core of these investigations is wholly incompatible with Barclays’ purpose and values and we deeply regret that it occurred.”

Loretta Lynch, the US attorney general, slammed bank traders for their “breathtaking flagrancy” to manipulate markets between 2007 and 2013. the end of 2013.

She said: “The penalty these banks will now pay is fitting considering the long-running and egregious nature of their anticompetitive conduct. It is commensurate with the pervasive harm done. And it should deter competitors in the future from chasing profits without regard to fairness, to the law, or to the public welfare.”

 

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