$ 240 billion in five years to fines for banks – Le Figaro

Since the 2009 crisis, the cost of sanctions exploded for institutions caught in wrongdoing offense.

US and British authorities have yet struck a blow Wednesday, inflicting six major international banks – JPMorgan, Citigroup, Bank of America, Barclays, RBS, UBS – some 6 billion dollars in fines for having been guilty of handling the foreign exchange market. The British Barclays pays the heaviest price of this dragnet, with 2.4 billion alone.

This file is emblematic. For if there is a market that no one thought could be manipulated, this is the “forex” (foreign exchange), deemed too big with over 5000 billion daily transactions, to be abused. The survey of American and British financial authorities seems to have proved otherwise.

But the agreement announced Wednesday …