USA: UBS, Deutsche Bank and HSBC écopent a fine

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – the u.s. department of Justice (DoJ) and the authority of regulation of the derivatives markets in the us were announced Monday that three european banks had agreed to pay a total fine of $ 46.6 million (€37.6 million) to avoid civil and criminal prosecution related to a case of manipulation alleged precious metals market and futures contracts in the United States.

The DoJ and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) have said that they were also eight traders of these banks to be delivered to a practice called “spoofing”, of placing fake orders and remove them before their execution.

Such a maneuver, which creates the illusion of a request, may allow traders to influence price in a direction favorable to their positions.

Deutsche Bank (DE:DBKGn), UBS and have agreed to pay respectively 30 million and 15 million, and HSBC will pay it, $ 1.6 million, said the CFTC.

The CFTC has imposed to the three banks of the penalties reduced as a result of their cooperation with the investigation. UBS itself has denounced the manipulation alleged in its traders, has added the CFTC.

A spokesperson for UBS did not want to comment, while a spokesman for HSBC said the bank was satisfied with this settlement.

For its part, a spokesman for Deutsche Bank said “the bank had worked out pro-active and important to the investigation by the government and that it had enhanced its controls and monitoring to ensure that such practices do not happen in the future”.

The practice of “spoofing” is prohibited by the law of financial regulation Dodd-Frank passed in 2010.

(Michelle Price, and Catherine Mallebay-Vacqueur for the French service)