5 big banks fined $5B for manipulating interest, currency rates

[BootinUp]

Source: The Dallas Morning News

WASHINGTON — Five of the world’s largest banks have agreed to pay more than $5 billion in fines to settle charges made by regulatory agencies and the Justice Department that the banks had acted in concert to manipulate international interest and foreign currency exchange rates.

U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch said the banks had engaged in “brazenly illegal behavior … on a near-daily basis.” She added that the deal showed that the government “intends to vigorously prosecute all those who tilt the economic system in their favor [and] who subvert our marketplaces.”

The scale of the price-fixing scandal is hard to grasp, yet it touched, imperceptibly, almost every company and individual in financial markets. By tweaking global benchmarks used to set foreign exchange and interest rates for a staggering number of transactions a day, the banks between 2007 and 2013 bilked billions of dollars of extra profits by altering rates in their favor.

Critics complained that the Justice Department had failed to prosecute any additional individuals. A Wall Street watchdog group called Better Markets called it a “slap on the wrist,” and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said in an email: “That’s not accountability for Wall Street. It’s business as usual, and it stinks.”

Read more: http://www.dallasnews.com/business/headlines/20150520-5-big-banks-fined-5b-for-manipulating-interest-currency-rates.ece

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No shit, they cheated us? Really?

[msongs]

1. the no-jail time Obama justice department has banks quaking in the boots lol nt

[cstanleytech]

4. The problem with the DOJ though predates all of us currently alive.

The truth is throughout our countries history when someone who is rich an powerful (in this case bankers) commits a crime involving money they are usually just given a slap on the wrist, sure the feds might toss us a bone now and then and send one of them to prison but thats very rare where as if most of us here committed the crime of taking 20 bucks out of the till we would be going to jail do not pass go do not collect $200.

[PADemD]

10. Only if they steal from the rich, do they go to jail.

[Hoppy]

13. That happened to my Uncle Bernie.

[PADemD]

15. Madoff?

[Hoppy]

16. Yes! (sarcasm)

[onecaliberal]

2. Until people go to prison this weak tea punishment doesn't mean a thing.

That fine is budget dust to these people. It's nothing.

[rdking647]

3. ban them from trading

start with barclays. as a convicted felon they can be banned from trading on US markets. that would effectively put them out of business. do it to one and all the other banks will fall into line lest they be put out of business too

[SoapBox]

7. Ban them.

That's exactly what our house says.

[Sherman A1]

8. Precisely

they are greedy, but not stupid.

[global1]

5. Where Does That $5 Billion Go To?...

What agency receives that money? Does it go to the general U.S. Treasury or somewhere else?

I've wondered where when a company gets fined where the money is put?

[burrowowl]

6. Who knows?

[IronLionZion]

11. Supposedly it finds its way into Treasury eventually

Justice Dept. gets their hands on it first but I don't believe they keep any of it. Supposedly

These are good questions. Most of these investigations start with another agency like the SEC or CFPB, or even from a whistleblower who might get some reward for reporting it.

[imthevicar]

9. 5 Billion!?

For the trillion or so they made!? No Jail!? It just the cost of doing business, and encourages more corruption.

[Nihil]

12. Barclays, JPMorgan Chase, Royal Bank of Scotland Group, Citigroup and UBS.

(Just for anyone who wanted to know which particular criminals are involved
in this case but don't feel like clicking through to the article.)

[L0oniX]

14. I doubt this will affect speaking fees.