Forex Manipulation Claims: Banking Forex Trading Scandal in Europe

Banking  Forex Trading Scandal: Giambrone’s Forex Lawyers ready to sue five of the world’s largest banks which have been collectively fined £2.6bn by UK and US regulators over allegations of forex fraud and foreign exchange market rigging

Following a 13-month investigation by the UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) into claims of manipulation of foreign exchange rates in the forex market, five of the world’s largest banks have been fined a total of £2.6bn by the FCA and two US regulators, as the banks were found to have failed to control their forex business practices between 2008 and 2013.

Giambrone is currently representing investors from all over the world in similar claims against the banks involved in the forex manipulation scandal. In January 2015 financial service giant JPMorgan Chase & Co. has reached a $100 million settlement to resolve a U.S. antitrust lawsuit that sought damages for the alleged rigging of foreign currency markets, in which investors accused 12 major banks of rigging prices in the $5 trillion-a-day foreign exchange market in the case of In re: Foreign Exchange Benchmark Rates Antitrust Litigation, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 13-07789.  Read more about these first forex manipulation settlements here.

The JP Morgan settlement will undoubtedly put pressure on the other eleven banks to follow suit and represents the beginning to establish the accountability of these banks engaged in the same trading in Europe, to avoid lengthy and expensive litigation for the victims of this currency manipulation scandal

Since the scandal has become public on mainstream media, we have been receiving numerous enquiries from forex traders and claimants across the globe seeking to sue financial institutions for hundreds of millions over global foreign exchange market and we are poised to launch legal actions in Asia and Europe, including the UK. The total aggregate of forex transactions would run into trillions of dollars since around £3 trillion worth of currencies is traded on the giant market every day, dwarfing the stock and bond markets, so any small movement in the exchange rates could produce millions in damages for forex traders and investors.

HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland, Swiss bank UBS and US banks JP Morgan Chase, Citibank and Bank of America have been fined £1.1 billion by the FCA, and the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has fined them an additional £880 million. A separate probe into Barclays is continuing. The latest fines are four times bigger than those imposed following the Libor rigging scandal.

A number of traders have been suspended or fired for forex market manipulation, misconduct involving the buying and selling of currencies, and for sharing information across the different banks involved in order to coordinate trading strategies. The Serious Fraud Office is in the process of preparing potential criminal charges against those alleged to have masterminded the scheme. 

“This is the latest scandal to rock the forex industry” – says Edward Norton, in the Forex Litigation Department at Giambrone, the international law firm. “We are investigating claims by whistleblowers that these banks were, between November 2010 and December 2012, told that foreign exchange traders were misbehaving, but failed to act beyond their own internal reviews. If this is the case, any forex trader who has suffered a loss as a result of these unethical practices may seek compensation for damages.”

For more information or an initial review of your case contact: forex@giambronelaw.com