UK regulator fines major banks for illicit bond trading chatrooms

​​​​​​​By Aysu Bicer

LONDON (AA) - The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) fined four major banks Friday more than £100 million ($126 million) after discovering traders used Bloomberg chatrooms to exchange sensitive information about government bonds.

The penalties follow a long-running investigation that found traders at HSBC, Citi, Morgan Stanley, Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) and Deutsche Bank shared confidential details about the buying and selling of UK government bonds, known as gilts, between 2009 and 2013.

Although the banks have since introduced “extensive compliance measures” to prevent similar behavior, the CMA confirmed the fines Friday.

The regulator issued fines to four of the banks involved:

• Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) -- £34.2 million
• Morgan Stanley -- £29.7 million
• HSBC -- £23.4 million
• Citi -- £17.2 million

Deutsche Bank was also part of the investigation but avoided penalties after alerting authorities to the misconduct.

Citi’s fine was cut by more than 50% following an agreement to settlement amid the investigation.