Authorities in the U.S. are likely to unveil additional settlements for $6 billion in the coming days. JPMorgan has hinted at a guilty plea in a criminal investigation while it joins Citigroup and the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) in paying fines to the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ).
The immunity of UBS which it gained after effectively whistleblowing to authorities about the malpractices on the foreign Exchange market are not going to save them from paying an $800 million fine. The penalty is related to the fraud investigations by the U.S. DoJ.
The figure adds to the $4.3bn Citigroup, JPMorgan, RBS, Bank of America and HSBC agreed to collectively pay to global financial regulators last November
Barclays has yet to announce its full bill after it deterred from settling with some regulators last November, when Citigroup, JPMorgan, RBS, Bank of America and HSBC agreed to collectively pay close to $4.3bn global financial regulators.
The allegations have included antitrust and fraud allegations According to sources cited by various media reports the banks will plead guilty to antitrust charges. Fraud charges details remain to be established.
Should the banks plead guilty of fraud they will have to plead for waivers from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ) and the Labour Department in order to be able to continue delivering their services.
Sources cited by various media this week have indicated that the official announcements are expected as early as Wednesday next week. The delays have been primarily due to negotiations about obtaining the necessary waivers from the SEC.
The earnings results of the above mentioned major banks will not be impacted by the settlements, since they have already provisioned for the expenses in previous quarters.
