Stage3Alpha:
OMEGA MAN
November 12, 2014 at 1:31pm
just got off skype, they tell me that we are nearly there, at max a few more days...possibly tonight...
believe me when i say that i am at the end of the rope, dangling, like all of you...
keep praying….we are nearly there...
»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»
G T
November 12, 2014 at 11:17am
Here's Some Wednesday Clues
The Bank Trolls are NOT HAPPY & Are In HIDING Watching Dinarland Cross The Bridge To Prosperity
Times RUNNING OUT As the NEW WORLD ENERGY IS SHIFTING GEARS NOW!!!
Back To China...... Their about to BUST OUT The VNN
Updated Clues.....
Bankers Are getting CAUGHT WITH THEIR HANDS IN THE COOKIE JAR......AGAIN (And this will be ongoing)!!!
These Investigations & Probes should have NOTHING TO DO With the Delay if Our Blessing
»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»
EXOGEN
November 12, 2014 at 12:48pm
Traders worked together to “whack” the market, called themselves a “cartell” and congratulated each other for a job well done, according to transcripts released by regulators today.
“Ok, i got a lot of euros,” a currency trader at JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) said in an undated 3:51 p.m. message to his counterpart at Citigroup Inc. (C) A minute later he says, “tell you what, lets double team it.”
Dozens of chats spanning four years from 2008 and rife with misspellings were released by regulators as they reached the first settlements in the global probe into the manipulation of foreign-exchange benchmarks. Citigroup, JPMorgan, Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc,HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA) and UBS (UBSN) AG were ordered to pay about $3.3 billion. The banks said in statements today that they have been working to improve controls and don’t tolerate such behavior.
Traders discussed which of their counterparts to include in chats and openly disclosed their positions with dealers at other banks just before the 4 p.m. WM/Reuters fix. That’s one of the most popular benchmarks for asset managers, and a time of day that was especially volatile for currency trading, so knowing other firms’ client orders beforehand could be advantageous.
Breaches of client confidentiality and inadequate chat-room supervision are at the heart of regulators’ findings in the foreign exchange probe that commenced over a year ago.
In another excerpt, traders at Citigroup, JPMorgan, and UBS debate whether to invite a fourth into a private chat room. “Are we ok with keeping this as is .. ie the info lvls & risk sharing?” the UBS trader asks at 7:49 a.m.
‘Protect Us?’
A minute later the JPMorgan trader tries to ensure that the new member puts the interests of the group first. “You know him -- will he tell rest of desk stuff -- or god forbin his nyk...” referring to New York colleagues.
The Citigroup trader then chimes in, “yes -- that’s really imp[ortant] q[uestion] -- dont want other numpty’s in mkt to know,” according to the transcripts, which added the wording clarification.
“But not only that,” the trader added. “Is he gonna protect us like we protect each other against our own branches?”
Banks have cracked down on chat rooms over the past year, banning online discussions involving multiple parties at multiple firms. Regulators cited similar conversations in their settlements of their probes into the manipulation of the London interbank offered rate.
“Ultimately, it came down to the behavior of individual market participants,” said Marshall Bailey, president of the ACI Financial Markets Association, which represents more than 13,000 people working in financial markets including foreign exchange. “We must work with international regulators to strengthen and implement these internal controls and ensure they are applied across all institutions globally.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Julia Verlaine in London atjverlaine2@bloomberg.net; Liam Vaughan in London at lvaughan6@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Heather Smith athsmith26@bloomberg.net; Simone Meier at smeier@bloomberg.net Cindy Roberts
»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»
EXOGEN
November 12, 2014 at 12:45pm
Six Banks to Pay $4.3 Billion in First Wave of Currency-Rigging Penalties
By Suzi Ring, Liam Vaughan and Jesse Hamilton Nov 12, 2014 10:00 AM ET
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-11-12/banks-to-pay-3-3-billion-in-fx-manipulation-probe.html
Nov. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Bank of England Governor Mark Carney speaks at a news conference in London about the firing of its chief currency dealer a day before he was faulted in an independent investigation for failing to alert his superiors that traders were sharing information about client orders. (Excerpt. Source: Bloomberg)
Regulators in the U.S., Britain and Switzerland ordered six banks to pay about $4.3 billion in the first wave of penalties since authorities began a global probe into the rigging of key foreign-exchange benchmarks last year.
The Office of Comptroller of the Currency fined Bank of America Corp. $250 million, while JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup Inc. will pay $350 million each, according to a statement. That adds to $3.3 billion of penalties announced earlier today by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority and the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority.
Banks and individuals could still face further penalties and litigation following the 13-month probe into allegations dealers at the biggest banks colluded with counterparts at other firms to rig benchmarks used by fund managers to determine what they pay for foreign currency. The Justice Department, which is working with the Federal Reserve, and Britain’s Serious Fraud Office are still leading criminal probes into the $5.3 trillion-a-day currency market.
Broken Benchmarks
“Many will see this as drawing a line under this sad episode,” said Tim Dawson, an analyst at Helvea SA in Geneva who covers financial firms. “We are less optimistic,” he said. The banks are “likely to face a heavy burden of potential litigation in coming years.”
Abusing Trust
Citigroup and JPMorgan, two of the biggest players in the currency trading market, will pay about $1 billion each in penalties to the OCC, CFTC, and FCA. UBS AG was earlier today fined about $800 million, Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc $634 million and HSBC Holdings Plc $618 million. Barclays Plc, which had been in settlement talks, said it wasn’t ready for a deal.
The regulators also released transcripts of chat groups dubbed ``the 3 musketeers,'' ``the A-team'' and ``1 team, 1 dream,'' showing traders sharing client orders.
“The traders put their own interest ahead of their customers, they manipulated the market -- or attempted to manipulate the market -- and abused the trust of the public,” FCA Chief Executive Officer Martin Wheatley told reporters at a briefing in London today. The regulator will press firms to review their bonus plans and claw back payments already made.
While the FCA has completed its probe in less than half the time it’s taken to investigate the rigging of Libor and other interest rate benchmarks, lawyers criticized the settlement for leaving unanswered how clients will be compensated, and a U.S. regulator shunned it for being too weak.
Photographer: Matthew Lloyd/Bloomberg
FCA Chief Executive Officer Martin Wheatley told reporters at a briefing in London...
“Barclays is the only bank we are currently investigating from an enforcement perspective,”Tracey McDermott, the FCA’s director of enforcement, said.
Deutsche Bank
The New York State Department of Financial Services, led by Superintendent Benjamin Lawsky, refused to sign on to the FCA settlement because he viewed it as too weak, said a person briefed on the matter who asked not to be named because the discussions were private. Barclays, which is regulated by the DFS, withdrew from the group settlement because of issues with Lawsky’s department, another person said.
About 30 other banks, including Deutsche Bank AG, will still have to overhaul their practices. The FCA isn’t planning to fine Deutsche Bank, the second biggest player by market share in foreign exchange. Credit Suisse Group AG has also been given the all-clear from the U.K. regulator, a spokesman for the Swiss bank said.
“The fines alone are not sufficient, and there is plenty more work for the regulator to do to ensure that those customers affected are properly compensated,” said Stevie Loughrey, a lawyer at London-based law firm Carter-Ruck. The fines “will offer no comfort whatsoever to those bank customers who have suffered significant losses.”
‘Ineffective Controls’
The probes were initially into whether traders colluded to manipulate the WM/Reuters benchmark rates. They have expanded to include whether traders used confidential information to take bets on unauthorized personal accounts, and whether sales desks charged clients excessive commissions. More than 30 traders have been fired, suspended, put on leave, or resigned since the probes began last year.
The FCA said its fines relate to “ineffective” controls at the banks between Jan. 1, 2008 and Oct. 15, 2013 that allowed the banks to put their “interests ahead of those of their clients, other market participants and the wider U.K. financial system.” These failings allowed traders at the banks to behave “unacceptably,” the FCA said.
“They shared information about clients’ activities which they had been trusted to keep confidential and attempted to manipulate G-10 spot foreign-exchange currency rates, including in collusion with traders at other firms, in a way that could disadvantage those clients and the market,” the FCA said.
Largest Fines
Today’s settlement includes the FCA’s largest-ever fines and marks first time the regulator has entered into a settlement with a group of banks. Previously, the regulator’s largest fine was a 160 million-pound penalty against UBS over the manipulation of the London interbank offered rate in 2012. The FCA announced its formal probe in October 2013, four months after Bloomberg News reported traders colluded to manipulate the WM/Reuters rates.
The FCA said it plans to “progress” its probe into Barclays, which wasn’t part of the settlement, to cover its wider foreign exchange trading business.
“We will continue to engage with these authorities, including the FCA and CFTC, with the objective of bringing this to resolution in due course,” Barclays said in a statement.
‘Severely Violated’
UBS, Switzerland’s largest bank, was ordered to give up 134 million Swiss francs ($139 million) in profit after the Zurich-based bank was found to have “severely violated” the requirement for proper business conduct in currency markets, Finma said. The bank was also ordered to cap bonuses for foreign-exchange and precious-metals bankers. Finma is also probing 11 employees.
The fines come more than two years after the first banks settled with U.K. and US authorities over allegations they rigged the London interbank offered rate, a benchmark interest rate used in $300 trillion of securities including swaps and home loans. A dozen firms have so far been fined at least $6.5 billion in investigations related to Libor and its derivatives. UBS was fined about $1.5 billion in that probe.
The Libor investigations, which have not yet concluded, sparked a broader review of dozens of benchmarks used in markets from oil to precious metals.
To contact the reporters on this story: Suzi Ring in London at sring5@bloomberg.net; Liam Vaughan in London at lvaughan6@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Heather Smith at hsmith26@bloomberg.netEdward Evans
OMEGA MAN
November 12, 2014 at 1:31pm
just got off skype, they tell me that we are nearly there, at max a few more days...possibly tonight...
believe me when i say that i am at the end of the rope, dangling, like all of you...
keep praying….we are nearly there...
»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»
G T
November 12, 2014 at 11:17am
Here's Some Wednesday Clues
The Bank Trolls are NOT HAPPY & Are In HIDING Watching Dinarland Cross The Bridge To Prosperity
Times RUNNING OUT As the NEW WORLD ENERGY IS SHIFTING GEARS NOW!!!
Back To China...... Their about to BUST OUT The VNN
Updated Clues.....
Bankers Are getting CAUGHT WITH THEIR HANDS IN THE COOKIE JAR......AGAIN (And this will be ongoing)!!!
These Investigations & Probes should have NOTHING TO DO With the Delay if Our Blessing
»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»
EXOGEN
November 12, 2014 at 12:48pm
Traders worked together to “whack” the market, called themselves a “cartell” and congratulated each other for a job well done, according to transcripts released by regulators today.
“Ok, i got a lot of euros,” a currency trader at JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) said in an undated 3:51 p.m. message to his counterpart at Citigroup Inc. (C) A minute later he says, “tell you what, lets double team it.”
Dozens of chats spanning four years from 2008 and rife with misspellings were released by regulators as they reached the first settlements in the global probe into the manipulation of foreign-exchange benchmarks. Citigroup, JPMorgan, Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc,HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA) and UBS (UBSN) AG were ordered to pay about $3.3 billion. The banks said in statements today that they have been working to improve controls and don’t tolerate such behavior.
Traders discussed which of their counterparts to include in chats and openly disclosed their positions with dealers at other banks just before the 4 p.m. WM/Reuters fix. That’s one of the most popular benchmarks for asset managers, and a time of day that was especially volatile for currency trading, so knowing other firms’ client orders beforehand could be advantageous.
Breaches of client confidentiality and inadequate chat-room supervision are at the heart of regulators’ findings in the foreign exchange probe that commenced over a year ago.
In another excerpt, traders at Citigroup, JPMorgan, and UBS debate whether to invite a fourth into a private chat room. “Are we ok with keeping this as is .. ie the info lvls & risk sharing?” the UBS trader asks at 7:49 a.m.
‘Protect Us?’
A minute later the JPMorgan trader tries to ensure that the new member puts the interests of the group first. “You know him -- will he tell rest of desk stuff -- or god forbin his nyk...” referring to New York colleagues.
The Citigroup trader then chimes in, “yes -- that’s really imp[ortant] q[uestion] -- dont want other numpty’s in mkt to know,” according to the transcripts, which added the wording clarification.
“But not only that,” the trader added. “Is he gonna protect us like we protect each other against our own branches?”
Banks have cracked down on chat rooms over the past year, banning online discussions involving multiple parties at multiple firms. Regulators cited similar conversations in their settlements of their probes into the manipulation of the London interbank offered rate.
“Ultimately, it came down to the behavior of individual market participants,” said Marshall Bailey, president of the ACI Financial Markets Association, which represents more than 13,000 people working in financial markets including foreign exchange. “We must work with international regulators to strengthen and implement these internal controls and ensure they are applied across all institutions globally.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Julia Verlaine in London atjverlaine2@bloomberg.net; Liam Vaughan in London at lvaughan6@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Heather Smith athsmith26@bloomberg.net; Simone Meier at smeier@bloomberg.net Cindy Roberts
»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»
EXOGEN
November 12, 2014 at 12:45pm
Six Banks to Pay $4.3 Billion in First Wave of Currency-Rigging Penalties
By Suzi Ring, Liam Vaughan and Jesse Hamilton Nov 12, 2014 10:00 AM ET
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-11-12/banks-to-pay-3-3-billion-in-fx-manipulation-probe.html
Nov. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Bank of England Governor Mark Carney speaks at a news conference in London about the firing of its chief currency dealer a day before he was faulted in an independent investigation for failing to alert his superiors that traders were sharing information about client orders. (Excerpt. Source: Bloomberg)
Regulators in the U.S., Britain and Switzerland ordered six banks to pay about $4.3 billion in the first wave of penalties since authorities began a global probe into the rigging of key foreign-exchange benchmarks last year.
The Office of Comptroller of the Currency fined Bank of America Corp. $250 million, while JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup Inc. will pay $350 million each, according to a statement. That adds to $3.3 billion of penalties announced earlier today by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority and the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority.
Banks and individuals could still face further penalties and litigation following the 13-month probe into allegations dealers at the biggest banks colluded with counterparts at other firms to rig benchmarks used by fund managers to determine what they pay for foreign currency. The Justice Department, which is working with the Federal Reserve, and Britain’s Serious Fraud Office are still leading criminal probes into the $5.3 trillion-a-day currency market.
Broken Benchmarks
“Many will see this as drawing a line under this sad episode,” said Tim Dawson, an analyst at Helvea SA in Geneva who covers financial firms. “We are less optimistic,” he said. The banks are “likely to face a heavy burden of potential litigation in coming years.”
Abusing Trust
Citigroup and JPMorgan, two of the biggest players in the currency trading market, will pay about $1 billion each in penalties to the OCC, CFTC, and FCA. UBS AG was earlier today fined about $800 million, Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc $634 million and HSBC Holdings Plc $618 million. Barclays Plc, which had been in settlement talks, said it wasn’t ready for a deal.
The regulators also released transcripts of chat groups dubbed ``the 3 musketeers,'' ``the A-team'' and ``1 team, 1 dream,'' showing traders sharing client orders.
“The traders put their own interest ahead of their customers, they manipulated the market -- or attempted to manipulate the market -- and abused the trust of the public,” FCA Chief Executive Officer Martin Wheatley told reporters at a briefing in London today. The regulator will press firms to review their bonus plans and claw back payments already made.
While the FCA has completed its probe in less than half the time it’s taken to investigate the rigging of Libor and other interest rate benchmarks, lawyers criticized the settlement for leaving unanswered how clients will be compensated, and a U.S. regulator shunned it for being too weak.
Photographer: Matthew Lloyd/Bloomberg
FCA Chief Executive Officer Martin Wheatley told reporters at a briefing in London...
“Barclays is the only bank we are currently investigating from an enforcement perspective,”Tracey McDermott, the FCA’s director of enforcement, said.
Deutsche Bank
The New York State Department of Financial Services, led by Superintendent Benjamin Lawsky, refused to sign on to the FCA settlement because he viewed it as too weak, said a person briefed on the matter who asked not to be named because the discussions were private. Barclays, which is regulated by the DFS, withdrew from the group settlement because of issues with Lawsky’s department, another person said.
About 30 other banks, including Deutsche Bank AG, will still have to overhaul their practices. The FCA isn’t planning to fine Deutsche Bank, the second biggest player by market share in foreign exchange. Credit Suisse Group AG has also been given the all-clear from the U.K. regulator, a spokesman for the Swiss bank said.
“The fines alone are not sufficient, and there is plenty more work for the regulator to do to ensure that those customers affected are properly compensated,” said Stevie Loughrey, a lawyer at London-based law firm Carter-Ruck. The fines “will offer no comfort whatsoever to those bank customers who have suffered significant losses.”
‘Ineffective Controls’
The probes were initially into whether traders colluded to manipulate the WM/Reuters benchmark rates. They have expanded to include whether traders used confidential information to take bets on unauthorized personal accounts, and whether sales desks charged clients excessive commissions. More than 30 traders have been fired, suspended, put on leave, or resigned since the probes began last year.
The FCA said its fines relate to “ineffective” controls at the banks between Jan. 1, 2008 and Oct. 15, 2013 that allowed the banks to put their “interests ahead of those of their clients, other market participants and the wider U.K. financial system.” These failings allowed traders at the banks to behave “unacceptably,” the FCA said.
“They shared information about clients’ activities which they had been trusted to keep confidential and attempted to manipulate G-10 spot foreign-exchange currency rates, including in collusion with traders at other firms, in a way that could disadvantage those clients and the market,” the FCA said.
Largest Fines
Today’s settlement includes the FCA’s largest-ever fines and marks first time the regulator has entered into a settlement with a group of banks. Previously, the regulator’s largest fine was a 160 million-pound penalty against UBS over the manipulation of the London interbank offered rate in 2012. The FCA announced its formal probe in October 2013, four months after Bloomberg News reported traders colluded to manipulate the WM/Reuters rates.
The FCA said it plans to “progress” its probe into Barclays, which wasn’t part of the settlement, to cover its wider foreign exchange trading business.
“We will continue to engage with these authorities, including the FCA and CFTC, with the objective of bringing this to resolution in due course,” Barclays said in a statement.
‘Severely Violated’
UBS, Switzerland’s largest bank, was ordered to give up 134 million Swiss francs ($139 million) in profit after the Zurich-based bank was found to have “severely violated” the requirement for proper business conduct in currency markets, Finma said. The bank was also ordered to cap bonuses for foreign-exchange and precious-metals bankers. Finma is also probing 11 employees.
The fines come more than two years after the first banks settled with U.K. and US authorities over allegations they rigged the London interbank offered rate, a benchmark interest rate used in $300 trillion of securities including swaps and home loans. A dozen firms have so far been fined at least $6.5 billion in investigations related to Libor and its derivatives. UBS was fined about $1.5 billion in that probe.
The Libor investigations, which have not yet concluded, sparked a broader review of dozens of benchmarks used in markets from oil to precious metals.
To contact the reporters on this story: Suzi Ring in London at sring5@bloomberg.net; Liam Vaughan in London at lvaughan6@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Heather Smith at hsmith26@bloomberg.netEdward Evans
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