BNP Paribas Agrees to $90 Million Penalty in Settlement over Rigging of FX Markets

BNP Paribas has been slapped with a $90 million fine in a settlement with the US Department of Justice (DoJ), over its attempts to manipulate foreign exchange markets.

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The DoJ also ordered France’s biggest bank to put in place a program to ensure that the alleged violation doesn’t happen again.

The settlement, which BNP announced late on Thursday after the DoJ filed the deal with a US judge, comes one year after a senior trader of the lender managed to reach a settlement in January 2017, but only after having to enter a guilty plea to criminal charges.

Jason Katz, who was a trader at Barclays and BNP Paribas, was found to have supressed competition by fixing prices in Central and Eastern European, Middle Eastern and African (CEEMEA) currencies. Alongside other co-conspirators, he manipulated prices on an electronic Trading Platform Trading Platform In the FX space, a currency trading platform is a software provided by brokers to their respective client base, garnering access as traders in the broader market. Most commonly, this reflects an online interface or mobile app, complete with tools for order processing.Every broker needs one or more trading platforms to accommodate the needs of different clients. Being the backbone of the company’s offering, a trading platform provides clients with quotes, a selection of instruments to trade, real In the FX space, a currency trading platform is a software provided by brokers to their respective client base, garnering access as traders in the broader market. Most commonly, this reflects an online interface or mobile app, complete with tools for order processing.Every broker needs one or more trading platforms to accommodate the needs of different clients. Being the backbone of the company’s offering, a trading platform provides clients with quotes, a selection of instruments to trade, real Read this Term “through the creation of non-bona fide trades, coordinated the placement of bids and offers on that platform and agreed on currency prices they would quote specific customers, among other conduct,” according to a press release from the US Department of Justice.

Earlier last year, the New York regulator accused more than a dozen traders and salespeople working for the Paris-based bank of manipulating the $5.3 trillion a day Forex Forex Foreign exchange or forex is the act of converting one nation’s currency into another nation’s currency (that possesses a different currency); for example, the converting of British Pounds into US Dollars, and vice versa. The exchange of currencies can be done over a physical counter, such as at a Bureau de Change, or over the internet via broker platforms, where currency speculation takes place, known as forex trading.The foreign exchange market, by its very nature, is the world’s largest tradi Foreign exchange or forex is the act of converting one nation’s currency into another nation’s currency (that possesses a different currency); for example, the converting of British Pounds into US Dollars, and vice versa. The exchange of currencies can be done over a physical counter, such as at a Bureau de Change, or over the internet via broker platforms, where currency speculation takes place, known as forex trading.The foreign exchange market, by its very nature, is the world’s largest tradi Read this Term market and other illegal activity over the course of six years. BNP Paribas has since agreed to pay $350 million to make up for the misconduct.

“This guilty plea holds BNP Paribas accountable for its corrupt price-fixing behavior which violated the integrity of the financial services industry and undermined competition,” said FDIC Inspector General Jay N. Lerner.

The move makes BNP one of the last big banks to reach a settlement for FX rigging. Other banks have also faced huge fines for allowing their traders to club together to rig prices in FX markets. Last year, four banks – Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland, Citigroup and JP Morgan Chase – pleaded guilty to conspiracy to rig the foreign exchange market and fines totalling $5.6 billion were handed down by the US Department of Justice.