Banks fined more than £2bn over Forex rigging scandal

Economic Secretary to the Treasury Andrea Leadsom has called the foreign exchange rigging scandal "disgusting."

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today Programme, she said:

Joel Hills: 'Free for all culture' led to Forex rigging scandal

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission has released transcripts from some of the chat rooms traders used to discuss 'fixing' strategies.

The transcripts show many examples of employees at several banks discussing how to rig the Forex rates in private chat rooms.

In this example, a group of traders from a British bank share information prior to the 4pm 'fix' and discuss their actions, congratulating each other.

And in this exchange, some traders from a different banking group share "ammo" to enable each other to maximise their returns.

More: Osborne: UK taking tough action to clean up corruption

The Financial Conduct Authority said traders at different banks formed tight-knit groups to share information about client activity, including using code names to identify clients without naming them.

Names given to these groups included "the players", "the 3 musketeers", "1 team, 1 dream", "a co-operative" and "the A-team". Traders shared the information obtained through these groups to help them work out their trading strategies.

More: FCA: Record fines 'mark the gravity of failings found'

The Royal Bank of Scotland has said it is reviewing the conduct of over 50 current and former trading employees globally, as well as "dozens" of supervisors and senior management executives.

So far six individuals have been placed into the disciplinary process, RBS also said.

RBS Chairman Sir Philip Hampton said:

Five banks, including RBS, have been issued fines by the Financial Conduct Authority over the foreign exchange (Forex) rigging scandal for "failing to control business practices".

George Osborne said Britain has been taking "tough action to clean up corruption by a few so that we have a financial system that works for everyone".

George Osborne said Britain's regulatory response to the financial crisis meant "the world can have confidence in the integrity of Britain's financial markets."

Mr Osborne said:

The Financial Conduct Authority said today's record fines over the foreign exchange (Forex) rigging scandal "mark the gravity of the failings we found".

FCA chief executive Martin Wheatley said in a statement:

The Bank of England has said there is no evidence any of its officials were involved in any "unlawful or improper behaviour" in relation to the foreign exchange market.

The Bank published an independent report by Lord Grabiner QC covering the period 2005-2013, which found that no Bank staff were aware of any improper behaviour by banks caught up in a wide-ranging Forex scandal.

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission has imposed fines totalling $1.4 billion (£879 million) on five banks over the Forex rigging scandal.

The penalties on the banks were issued as follows:

• Citibank - $310 million
• JPMorgan - $310 million
• RBS - $290 million
• UBS - $290 million
• HSBC - $275 million