Quoting a source close to the negotiations, The Times says that Mr Lawsky — who has been conducting separate inquiries — disagreed with the civil settlements, which are intended to end investigations. They "provided cover" for wrongdoing, he was quoted as saying.
No lessons learned from Libor
Despite the UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) announcement of an industry-wide "remediation programme" after the settlements were revealed, British media took a ‘we've heard this before' line, pointing to the fact that no lessons appear to have been learned from last year's Libor scandal, since the forex rigging continued as late as October this year.
"What were these banks' managements doing to honour their worthy words about cleansing the rotten culture in trading rooms?" asks the Guardian's Nils Pratley. "The deterrent impact of Libor seems to have been zero."
RBS, HSBC pay up in civil settlement
Regulators yesterday fined the six international banks for failing to stop traders from trying to manipulate the foreign exchange market which forms the core of international trade and moves £3.17 trillion a day.
The Royal Bank of Scotland, which is 80 per cent owned by British taxpayers — and it is the shareholders who ultimately pay fines — was among the six. It was fined £399 million in the settlements thrashed out between the banks and UK and US authorities following a year-long global investigation.
HSBC (£389 million), Swiss UBS AG and American JPMorgan Chase & Co, Citigroup and Bank of America also incurred fines resulting from the inquiry, which has sparked a series of measures to tighten regulation and is likely to lead to more serious legal consequences for the banking sector over coming months.
Renowned for taking a tough line, Mr Lawsky has been known to demand firings of employees and clawbacks of their bonuses. In recent months, he has helped land record settlements from banks, and could significantly drive up the ultimate price tag on the forex probes.
He is said to be considering criminal charges against some entities early next year.
BoE fires FX chief
In a development the Bank of England insisted is unrelated to the latest scandal, it revealed yesterday that it has dismissed its chief foreign exchange dealer, Martin Mallett after an investigation criticised his handling of suspicious market practices.
Emails and phone calls between Mr Mallett and FX market participants going as far back as 2006 showed Mallett expressing concern that communications between traders could be seen as collusion and possible market manipulation.
In a call On November 28, 2012, Mallett told a market commentator he felt the FX market was "too chatty" and there was a "fine line" between that and collusive behaviour.
"I'm a little bit nervous about the FX market's approach to benchmarking, fixing, because of its inherent chattiness and like I say, there's a fine line between chattiness and, and acting in a way which disadvantages others," he said.
Mallett did not take the matter further, which "constituted an error in judgment that deserved criticism, but such criticism should be limited in that the individual was not acting in bad faith", the investigative report said. The report said Mallett was not aware of any specific instances of unlawful or improper behaviour.
