Barclays investors unfazed as bank slapped with $150m forex fine by New York State Department of Financial Services
Barclays has just been slapped with an additional $150m (£98m) fine for its manipulation of the Forex markets by the New York State Department of Financial Services.
The British bank has also agreed to "terminate" its global head of electronic fixed income, currencies and commodities as part of the settlement.
The fine owes specifically to misconduct on its "Last Look" system, which Barclays used to automatically reject client orders that would be unprofitable for the bank because of "subsequent price swings during milliseconds-long latency", the Department of Financial Services said.
When clients asked Barclays why their trades had been rejected, the bank failed to disclose the real reason "instead citing technical issues or providing vague responses".
It comes on top of a $2.4bn fine for the same issue in May.
Barclays was one of five major banks fined this summer for manipulating foreign exchange markets. JP Morgan, Citibank, RBS and UBS were fined a total of $5.7bn.
Acting superintendent Anthony Albanese said: “We are pleased that Barclays worked with us to resolve this matter.
"This case highlights the need for greater oversight and action to help prevent the misuse of automated, electronic trading platforms on Wall Street, which is a wider industry issue that requires serious additional scrutiny.”
Investors appeared unfazed by the news, with Barclays' share price barely moving. It was down 0.4 per cent in late afternoon trading.
More to follow…