Five Big Banks Plead Guilty to Rigging Currency Markets and No One Goes to Jail.
The five biggest banks, Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, Barclays, The Royal Bank of Scotland, and UBS, have all pleaded guilty to multiple crimes involving foreign currencies, interest rates, and collusion. The traders, according to the New York Times, had formed a, quote, “an invitation-only club where the stakes were so high that newcomers were warned: mess this up, and sleep with one eye open.” The pleas are expected to be heard this afternoon in federal court. Joining us now from Sag Harbor, New York to discuss all of this is James S. Henry. James is a leading economist, attorney, and investigative journalist.
They all rigged the foreign exchange markets and more. Check out what CHASE posted on their site.
JP Morgan Chase – MAY 20, 2015 DISCLOSURE NOTICE.
JP Morgan Chase – CLIENT LETTER REGARDING SPOT FX SALES AND TRADING PRACTICES.We added markup to price quotes using hand signals and/or other internal arrangements or communications. Specifically, when obtaining price quotes for bids or offers from the Firm, certain clients requested to be placed on open telephone lines, meaning the client could hear pricing not only from a salesperson, but also from the trader who would be executing the client’s order. In certain instances, certain of our salespeople used hand signals to indicate to the trader to add markup to the price being quoted to the client on the open telephone line, so as to avoid informing the client listening on the phone of the markup and/or the amount of the markup. For example, prior to agreement between the client and the Firm to transact for the purchase of €100, a salesperson would, in certain instances, indicate with hand signals that the trader should add two pips of markup in providing a specific price to the client (e.g., a EURUSD rate of 1.1202, rather than 1.1200) in order to earn the Firm markup in connection with the prospective transaction.
U.S. Prosecutors Can Hang Felonies on Big Banks: Now What?
We use some of these banks and the services are terrible, the bankers we work with aren’t at fault, this is a deeper issue, there is no consequences to any actions.