Barclays faces fine of at least $100m in New York
BARCLAYS is expected to pay at least $100 million (R1.4 billion) to settle an investigation by New York’s banking regulator into whether it abused the “last look” practice on its electronic currency-trading programme, according to a person briefed on the matter.
Barclays pleaded guilty in May to charges from the US Justice Department related to the rigging of foreign exchange rates and paid a total of $2.4bn to a variety of regulators, including New York’s Department of Financial Services (DFS). The DFS received $485m of that sum, but stipulated that its own investigation would continue. The $100m settlement being discussed would resolve the “last look” issue.
Britain’s second-largest bank is among global lenders hardest hit by a worldwide investigation from regulators into allegations of collusion in the $5.3 trillion-a-day currency market. While Barclays has reached settlements with most of the major authorities such as in the US and UK, it could still face litigation from clients.
‘Last looks’ abuse
“It would seem they’re getting very close to the end of their major investigations,” said Joseph Dickerson, an analyst at Jefferies International in London with a buy rating on shares. “That’s outside of civil claims, which can be hard to gauge but tend to be small.”
The New York probe, which started a year ago, focuses on electronic-trading platforms of the biggest banks operating on foreign currency markets. It is seeking to determine whether banks abused the practice of “last looks”, which allow the firms to back out of currency trades that shift against them.
In May, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Royal Bank of Scotland Group pleaded guilty to conspiring to manipulate the price of dollars and euros as part of settlements with the Justice Department. UBS Group won immunity in the settlement in exchange for cooperating, but pleaded guilty to a wire-fraud charge stemming from a previous matter involving the fixing of interest rates.
Kerrie Ann Cohen, a spokeswoman for Barclays, declined to comment, as did Ciara Marangas, a DFS spokeswoman. News of the expected settlement was reported earlier by the Financial Times.
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HARARE
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US
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GERMANY
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FRANCE