Banks fined £33m

US authorities last night revealed civil charges against HSBc, UBS and Deutsche Bank for manipulating futures markets.

the banks paid £33m to settle the cases, with HSBc paying £1.1m.

All three banks received reduced penalties for providing assistance in the investigation. It comes after a probe into ‘spoofing’ by the US Justice Department, FBI and commodities Futures trading commission.

Spoofing is when a trader places orders but intends to cancel them before the transactions complete. this creates an illusion of demand, inflating prices.