Access Investments-European Union- ROMANIA

The corruption of the world’s biggest currency dealers was laid bare on Wednesday when regulators imposed £2.6bn of fines on six major banks for rigging the £3.5tn-a-day foreign exchange markets....A second US regulator, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, also imposed separate fines on JP Morgan, Citi and Bank of America taking the day’s tally to £2.6bn. Andrea Leadsom, a Treasury minister, said people who have done wrong “will not be back in a dealing room on a big salary” and “everything that can be done to punish this type of behaviour” will be done.  She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “It’s completely disgusting. I think taxpayers will be horrified ... I don’t know if corruption is a strong enough word for it.”  Leadsom said it was particularly bad that this was going on at a time when taxpayers were bailing out the banks.  Announcing the first ever co-ordinated regulatory action, the FCA’s Tracey McDermott, director of enforcement and financial crime, said: “Firms could have been in no doubt, especially after Libor, that failing to take steps to tackle the consequences of a free for all culture on their trading floors was unacceptable.”  The settlement was co-ordinated with the US regulator, the Commodities Futures and Trading Commission, which published transcripts of traders discussing foreign exchange rates on private chatrooms. In one, a trader writes “dont want other numpty’s in mkt to know”. The traders make remarks such as “nice job mate” and “yeah baby” as they discuss the rates.