Big banks pay $5.6 billion, plead guilty to felonies over currency and rate-fixing

by: Bill Chappell

Citicorp, JPMorgan Chase, Barclays, The Royal Bank of Scotland and UBS AG have agreed to plead guilty to felony charges and pay billions in criminal fines, the Department of Justice says. The offenses range from manipulating the value of dollars and euros to rigging interest rates.

Citicorp, JPMorgan Chase, Barclays, The Royal Bank of Scotland will pay fines totaling $2.5 billion to the Justice Department. In addition, the Federal Reserve is imposing fines of more than $1.6 billion on the five banks.

In separate arrangements, Barclays will pay other U.S. and British agencies an additional $1.3 billion, and UBS will plead guilty to manipulating the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) and other benchmark interest rates, after the Justice Department found the bank’s actions had breached a December 2012 non-prosecution agreement.

A breakdown of the fines paid to the Fed and Justice:

  • Citicorp: $1.26 billion
  • Barclays: $992 million
  • JPMorgan: $892 million
  • RBS: $669 million
  • UBS: $545 million
  • Bank of America: $205 million
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