ZURICH: Swiss competition authorities said they had fined five large banks some $90 million for collusion in foreign exchange trading, following steep fines recently imposed by Brussels. Barclays, Citigroup, JPMorgan, Japan’s MUFG Bank and Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) were hit with fines totalling around 90 million Swiss francs ($90.5 million, 80.6 million euros) after determining that the banks’ traders had colluded to fix exchange rates using chat rooms, the Swiss Competition Commission (COMCO) said.
The commission said Swiss banking giant UBS was not fined, since it first revealed the collusion to the authorities. “Traders of several internationally active banks have partially coordinated their conduct in two separate cartels,” COMCO said in a statement, adding that they had fixed rates for a range of currencies, including US dollars, euros, British pounds and Swiss francs. The first cartel was dubbed the “Three-way banana split” — after the name of the online chat forum where the traders exchanged information — and involved Barclays, Citigroup, JPMorgan, RBS and UBS. It ran from 2007 to 2013, COMCO said. — AFP
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