Forex

Bank of England Fires Chief FX Dealer Participating In Currency-Rigging Scandal

– Bank of England Fires Chief FX Dealer Participating In Currency-Rigging Scandal (ZeroHedge, Nov 11, 2014):

Early in 2014, when the FX rigging scandal was still news, one of the most disturbing developments to emerge was that none other than the venerable Bank of England itself had been engaged in collusion with various manipulating parties, explicitly those participating in “The Bandits Club”, “Cartel” and other chatrooms, as described in “Bank Of England Encouraged Currency Manipulation By Banks.”

As Bloomberg reported at the time:

Read moreBank of England Fires Chief FX Dealer Participating In Currency-Rigging Scandal

How Banks Continue FX Rigging Right Under The SEC’s Noses

–  How Banks Continue FX Rigging Right Under The SEC’s Noses (ZeroHedge, Sep 16, 2014):

The good news is that the rigging of the FX markets – now conspiracy fact, not conspiracy theory – has, according to Bloomberg, forced the world’s biggest banks to overhaul how they trade currencies to regain the trust of customers and preempt regulators’ efforts to force changes on an industry tarnished by allegations of manipulation with the “modernization of processes that probably should have been brought in 15 or 20 years ago.” However, the FX market is far from ‘clean’ as Bloomberg notes, while banks can limit access to details about client orders on their computer systems, they can’t keep employees from talking to one another. Some traders also are still communicating with clients and counterparts at other firms via Snapchat, circumventing their company’s controls right under the nose of the SEC. As one trader commented, “these [reform] changes look like fig leaves.”

As Bloomberg reports, positive changes are happening (on the surface)…

Read moreHow Banks Continue FX Rigging Right Under The SEC’s Noses

New York Regulator Demands Documents From More Than A Dozen Banks including Barclays, Deutsche, Goldman Sachs And RBS As Forex Probe Widens

– New York regulator demands bank documents as investigation widens (Guardian, Feb 5, 2014):

Goldman Sachs and Barclays among banks investigated after reports some traders shared information about currency positions

New York state’s top financial regulator has demanded documents from more than a dozen banks including Barclays, Deutsche, Goldman Sachs and RBS as a probe widened into trading practices in the $5.3tn-a-day global foreign exchange markets.

Benjamin Lawsky, New York’s financial services superintendent, made the move following the banks’ decision to fire or suspend at least 20 traders following reports that employees at some firms had shared information about their currency positions with counterparts at other companies.

Read moreNew York Regulator Demands Documents From More Than A Dozen Banks including Barclays, Deutsche, Goldman Sachs And RBS As Forex Probe Widens

Meet The “Bandits’ Club” – The TBTF Wall Street Cartel Rigging The FX Market

– Meet the “Bandits’ Club” – The TBTF Wall Street Cartel Rigging the FX Market (Liberty Blitzkrieg, Dec 20, 2013):

Another day, another tale of how the “Too Big to Jail” Wall Street cartel manipulates a major global market with no repercussions whatsoever. Must be nice having essentially every Congressperson and regulator in your back pocket. Get caught? Pay a little fine and get on with it. Everyone wins!

Actually, everyone loses. Except for the handful of FX manipulators, rigging global currency markets from their Essex villages outside of London. These traders for major TBTF banks refer to themselves by various names in their now silenced Bloomberg chat rooms, from The Cartel,” “The Bandits’ Club,” “One Team, One Dream” and “The Mafia.” Very classy guys. Glad we bailed your asses out…

More from Bloomberg:

Read moreMeet The “Bandits’ Club” – The TBTF Wall Street Cartel Rigging The FX Market

Energy Prices: Manipulated – LIBOR: Manipulated – FX: Manipulated – Now Brent Crude: Manipulated – But Suggest Gold Is And You’re Branded A Whacko!

Want To Trade FX On Inside Information? Here Is How To Do It, Straight From Kashya Hildebrand (Video)

– Want To Trade FX On Inside Information? Here Is How To Do It, Straight From Kashya Hildebrand (ZeroHedge, Jan. 12, 2012):

Wondering how wives of (ex) central bankers would engage in insider trading if that was their intent (forgetting for a second that if one is the wife of a central banker one probably should not be engaging in any FX transaction to begin with)? Now we know, courtesy of this first interview with the wife of the former SNB head following his departure in which she tell us how a former Moore Capital currency trader would engage in FX insider trading “if one wanted to…”

Video vom 11.01.2012, 17:16

BUSTED: Citigroup Caught BLATANTLY Marketing Itself As Casino

In the course of getting to know the online forex landscape, we came across the following.

citigroup

That’s right. When you do a search for “Casino Bonanza Online” you get two ads for online casino-based sites, but the very first is an add for CitiFXPro.com, which is, yes, a retail Forex trading site run by Citi.

Now, it’s not really shocking that a multi-headed behemoth as big as Citigroup (C) has a retail Forex site, but here they’re specifically advertising against gambling-related terms, and showing up right next to Best USA Online CASINOS.

Major Wall Street firms are frequently likened to casinos, but they’re usually not this blatant about it, and usually their services are geared towards sophisticated, institutional investors. But CitiFXPro.com is pure retail, requiring only $10,000 to open an account. That’s not non-trivial, but it’s way less than the threshold for anything that would be regarded as institutional.

And if all this alone weren’t enough to make Paul Volcker lose his lunch, check out what Citi lists as its advantages. Check out the fourth one, specifically:

Read moreBUSTED: Citigroup Caught BLATANTLY Marketing Itself As Casino