South Korea Fines Four Global Banks for FX Rigging

South Korean financial market watchdog the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) has fined four major global banks for illegally sharing information and indulging in unfair price bids to win foreign exchange derivatives contracts from five Korean companies, according to a Korea Times report.
The four banks are JPMorgan Chase, HSBC, Deutsche Bank, and Standard Chartered Bank.

In total, the regulator has imposed 693 million won (around $616,000) in fine on the four banks. JPMorgan Chase has to pay the largest share of 251 million won ($223,000), followed by HSBC with a 225 million won in fine. Deutsche Bank and Standard Chartered Bank have been slapped with a fine of 212 million won ($188,000) and 5 million won ($4,500) respectively.
In addition, the FTC has also warned the banks of severe consequences if any such practices are repeated in the future.
The South Korean agencies had initiated local investigations against the major financial bodies amid the infamous global financial scandal by big banks known as “the cartel”. This move came as a part of a probe by the Financial Supervisory Services (FSS) on a series of cases involving investment banks’ price rigging of forex derivatives contracts.
The four banks had conspired seven times with five companies from March 2010 to February 2012 to sell currency contracts. The regulator, however, did not reveal the names of the five companies involved with the banks.
The banks also cooperated among each other to manage their contracts. The bank employees even shared price quotes with each other over public messaging platforms.
The FTC believes that its move against the banks will bring back the market order and will encourage the companies for fair competition while dealing with currency derivatives.
Repeat Offender
This is not the first time the FTC has for forex rigging as, last year, Deutsche Bank AG and BNP Paribas were fined 71 million won ($63,000) and 105 million won ($93,000) respectively for manipulating forward currency contract prices from 2011 to 2014.
Earlier this month, was slapped with HKD 12.5 million ($1.6 million) by the Hong Kong regulator for not maintaining anti-money laundering laws over a two year period.

Be First to Comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *