In foreign exchange rigging: ‘If you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying’

Foreign exchange traders clubbed together in a brazen “heads, I win; tails, you lose” strategy to rip off customers as they rigged the $5 trillion-per-day currency market, British and U.S. authorities said on Wednesday. Transcripts released as part of a multibillion-dollar settlement are littered with examples of how customers were misled and prices manipulated in the trading scandal.

Whats the worst price i can put on this where the customers decision to trade with me or give me future business doesn’t change … if you aint cheating, you aint trying.

A Barclays employee, writing in 2010

Citicorp, JPMorgan Chase, the Royal Bank of Scotland and Barclays pleaded guilty on Wednesday to trying to manipulate foreign exchange rates, and six banks were fined a total of nearly $6 billion in a deal that is expected to wrap up a global inquiry into misconduct in the market. The banks represented at least one-fourth of dollar-euro transactions each year and “were uniquely positioned to manipulate the market,” said Assistant Attorney General Bill Baer.

They acted as partners — rather than competitors — in an effort to push the exchange rate in directions favorable to their banks but detrimental to many others.

Attorney General Loretta Lynch

Business FX rigging