Authorities fined five of the world's largest banks, including JPMorgan Chase & Co and Citigroup inc, roughly $5.7 billion, and four of them agreed to plead guilty to U.S. criminal charges over manipulation of foreign exchange rates, the U.S. Department of Justice said on Wednesday.
The fifth bank, UBS AG, will plead guilty to rigging benchmark interest rates, the Justice Department said.
U.S. banks JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup will pay $550 million and $925 million in criminal fines, respectively, as part of their guilty pleas.
British banks Barclays will pay $650 million in criminal penalties and Royal Bank of Scotland $395 million. Each will plead guilty to one felony count of conspiring to fix prices and rig bids for U.S. dollars and euros in the foreign exchange spot market.
The $5.7 billion includes $1.6 billion in fines separately imposed by the U.S. Federal Reserve on the five banks.
Barclays also will pay an additional $1.3 billion to settle with the New York state Department of Financial Services, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the UK's Financial Conduct Authority, authorities said.
As part of the New York banking regulator's agreement, Barclays will fire eight bank employees involved with rigging foreign exchange rates, the New York regulator said.
-- Reuters