South Korea Investigating Six Major Banks for Forex Rigging

The antitrust regulatory body in South Korea responsible for ensuring a level playing field across all sectors of the economy, announced that it is probing a number of major banks for manipulating currency rates.

Any unfair cartel-style practice would fall into the Fair Trading Commission’s jurisdiction as it is aiming to create a competitive environment for South Korean SMEs.

The tactics used by a number of major banks involved in foreign Exchange Exchange An exchange is known as a marketplace that supports the trading of derivatives, commodities, securities, and other financial instruments.Generally, an exchange is accessible through a digital platform or sometimes at a tangible address where investors organize to perform trading. Among the chief responsibilities of an exchange would be to uphold honest and fair-trading practices. These are instrumental in making sure that the distribution of supported security rates on that exchange are effectiv An exchange is known as a marketplace that supports the trading of derivatives, commodities, securities, and other financial instruments.Generally, an exchange is accessible through a digital platform or sometimes at a tangible address where investors organize to perform trading. Among the chief responsibilities of an exchange would be to uphold honest and fair-trading practices. These are instrumental in making sure that the distribution of supported security rates on that exchange are effectiv Read this Term markets rigging include the exchange of confidential information which has been unfairly used by the financial institutions to manipulate currency rates.

While officials haven’t disclosed all banks affected, sources with knowledge of the matter say that Barclays Plc and Bank of America are amongst the financial institutions involved. The Fair Trading Commission of South Korea is aiming to establish whether any Korean firms were affected by the malpractice of some major banks engaged in rigging foreign exchange fixings.

Recently, the South African regulator also launched an investigation on similar grounds, however no charges have been raised until now.

Some experts have shared that the scale of the fresh investigations brought forth by the banks admitting to wrongdoing in other jurisdictions could be massive. Global banks have been on the hook for billions of dollar of fines as a result of investigations of their market practices.

Both the Libor Libor Libor stands for London Inter-bank offered rate. It is an industry-specific term which most of us would never have heard of until the "Libor scandal" became popularized in 2012. Libor is considered to be one of the most important interest rates in finance, upon which trillions of financial contracts rest. The Libor rate effects over $800,000,000,000,000 in financial deals. Banks simply cannot lend money to one another whenever they like as there is a system in place. Every day a group of leading Libor stands for London Inter-bank offered rate. It is an industry-specific term which most of us would never have heard of until the "Libor scandal" became popularized in 2012. Libor is considered to be one of the most important interest rates in finance, upon which trillions of financial contracts rest. The Libor rate effects over $800,000,000,000,000 in financial deals. Banks simply cannot lend money to one another whenever they like as there is a system in place. Every day a group of leading Read this Term and FX fixings manipulations have affected a number of firms, including pension funds and big corporations which got hit by unfavorable exchange rates. The guilty pleas which major banks have agreed to in the U.S. are effectively serving as proof for regulators in other jurisdictions that market manipulation was present.

There is no information on the number of different government regulatory bodies which are going to pursue further action against the world's biggest financial institutions.