Banks set aside billions for currency rigging

[David Guyatt]

No hint of criminal charges for fraud and conspiracy to defraud (and doubtless many other possible charges that would ordinarily apply), mind you. Be a banker and receive a get out of jail card as a bonus of the job.

Barclays sets aside £500m for currency rigging fine

Bank is first from UK to set aside funds for foreign exchange settlements, as it reports 5pc rise in profits and earmarks extra £170m for PPI costs

Barclays is the first British bank to set aside funds Photo: ALAMY









By James Titcomb

7:43AM GMT 30 Oct 2014

13 Comments


Barclays has set aside £500m ahead of an expected fine for rigging foreign exchange rates, the first British bank to do so.

It came as the bank posted a 5pc rise in adjusted profits in the first nine months of the year to £4.9bn.

Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland and HSBC are among six banks expected to settle with the Financial Conduct Authority in the coming weeks over rigging foreign exchange rates, a scandal that could result in bigger fines than Libor.

The bank also set aside an additional £170m for PPI compensation, but released £160m for compensation to customers who bought interest hedging products.

UBS, which is also expected to settle with the FCA, set aside £1bn for a number of legal charges on Tuesday. JPMorgan and Citigroup are also expected to settle and have recently set aside money for costs.

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Both the UK watchdog and its US counterpart are expected to levy heavy fines on the banks.
Profits at Barclays' investment bank, which chief executive Antony Jenkins is shrinking, fell by 38pc in the nine months, while its retail banking unit and Barclaycard improved.
Statutory pre-tax profits, which include factors such as the foreign exchange provision and PPI, but also a £461m boost from the expected recovery of Lehman Brothers assets, were up 31pc in the nine months to £3.7bn, partly reflecting higher PPI charges in the same period last year.

"These results, with a 5pc increase in profits before tax, show further steady progress towards our Transform financial commitments for 2016, and demonstrate how our strategic decision to rebalance Barclays has created greater resilience in the Group," Mr Jenkins said. He called the performance at the investment bank "disappointing".
Chirantan Barua, an analyst at Bernstein, said the results were "a clear indication of a deleveraging investment bank under significant pressure," and said the Bank of England's decision on the leverage ratio - a measure of a bank's financial reserves - on Friday could be " crucial for the sustainability of this business".
Barclays' leverage ratio - the proportion of capital it holds against its balance sheet - rose from 3.4pc to 3.5pc, but on Friday, the Bank of England is expected to tell banks to increase this to between 4pc and 5pc in the coming years.
Shares in the bank were up around 2pc in early trading.