Brazil Watchdog fines Morgan Stanley, RBC Fined $11M for Rigging Real Spreads

Brazil’s competition authority Cade has reached a settlement with Morgan Stanley and Royal Bank of Canada, fining them a combined 42.9 million reals ($11.6 million) for forming a cartel manipulate FX markets.

Cade - which stands for Conselho Administrativo de Defesa Econômica, or the Administrative Council for Economic Defence - is the latest to fine major banks over its attempts to rig foreign Exchange Exchange An exchange is known as a marketplace that supports the trading of derivatives, commodities, securities, and other financial instruments.Generally, an exchange is accessible through a digital platform or sometimes at a tangible address where investors organize to perform trading. Among the chief responsibilities of an exchange would be to uphold honest and fair-trading practices. These are instrumental in making sure that the distribution of supported security rates on that exchange are effectiv An exchange is known as a marketplace that supports the trading of derivatives, commodities, securities, and other financial instruments.Generally, an exchange is accessible through a digital platform or sometimes at a tangible address where investors organize to perform trading. Among the chief responsibilities of an exchange would be to uphold honest and fair-trading practices. These are instrumental in making sure that the distribution of supported security rates on that exchange are effectiv Read this Term rates, and follows high-profile investigations in the UK and US.

Brazilian antitrust watchdog accused the banks of colluding to influence bid and ask spreads on OTC transactions involving the Brazilian real, in a bid to make bigger profits to the detriment of customers.

Alongside other co-conspirators, the banks manipulated prices on electronic trading platforms through the creation of non-bona fide trades, coordinated the placement of bids and offers, and agreed on currency prices they would quote specific customers.

In 2015, Cade accused a total of 15 banks of colluding to manipulate benchmark currency rates in Brazil, including HSBC, Barclays, RBS, Citi, Credit Suisse, UBS, JP Morgan and Standard Chartered. The banks were investigated over aligning positions and pushing transactions in a way that deterred competitors after similar probes in the US, and Europe led to penalties of more than $10 billion.

Elsewhere, traders in the banks used a tactic called ‘building ammo,’ where they improperly shared customer information on trading the USD/BRL currency pair to ensure that they were not taking positions that would hurt one another.

The agency also looked into the possibility that traders shared competitively sensitive information in chatrooms with the aim of fixing prices. Such information included details of client orders, as well as trading strategies, the regulator said. Cade was looking at activity in 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 markets between 2007 and 2013.