On 16 May 2019, the European Commission adopted two decisions finding that the Banks (listed at Question 3) each participated in one or both of two cartels in foreign exchange spot trading:
- The first cartel, known as the “Three Way Banana Split” cartel, involved Barclays, RBS/NatWest, Citigroup, JP Morgan and UBS, and operated between 18 December 2007 – 31 January 2013.
- The second cartel, known as the “Essex Express” cartel, involved Barclays, RBS/NatWest, MUFG Bank and UBS, and operated between 14 December 2009 – 31 July 2012.
The cartels concerned the G10 currencies and covered the whole of the EEA. Their names are derived from the names of the online chatrooms used by the traders involved in the cartels, which are explained below.
The cartels covered the total period of 18 December 2007 – 31 January 2013, although the banks did not necessarily participate in either or both of the cartels for the whole of that period.
The Commission found that traders employed by the Banks, who were involved in FX spot trading, had reached an underlying understanding to exchange, and had exchanged, current or forward-looking commercially sensitive information through private, online chat rooms. The traders also occasionally coordinated their trading activities.
The Commission found that commercially sensitive information was shared in the chatrooms on an extensive and recurrent basis. That information included:
- The open risk positions of the participating traders (i.e. the currency they needed to sell or buy in order to convert their portfolios into their bank’s currency);
- Information relating to customers’ outstanding orders (i.e. the amount that a customer wanted to exchange and the specific currencies involved, as well as indications on which client was involved in a transaction);
- Information on bid-ask spreads (i.e. prices); and
d) Other details of current or planned trading activities.
This claim relies on those decisions and alleges that businesses and individuals who entered into spot transactions and/or outright forward transactions involving a pair of G10 currencies with the Banks or other Relevant Financial Institutions suffered losses as a result of this misconduct.
For more information, please take a look at the Commission’s press release.
