Former UBS forex staff banned by Swiss watchdog

UBS settled a US investigation into alleged rigging of currency markets by paying $545 million Keystone

Swiss authorities have banned six former UBS managers and traders for up to five years for failings related to market manipulation in foreign exchange and precious metals. 

The six individuals were directly responsible for serious breaches of regulation, supervisory authority FINMA said on Thursday. 

“Traders shared confidential client information, sometimes revealing the identity of clients to third parties, deliberately triggered stop-loss orders, and engaged in front running,” FINMA said. 

The traders repeatedly attempted to manipulate foreign exchange benchmarks, it added, while management failed to adequately control and monitor chatroom conversations. 

“Those responsible for the management of foreign exchange trading tolerated, and at times encouraged, behaviour which was improper and against the interests of clients, ” FINMA said. 

It did not name the individuals, which is common practice in Switzerland due to strict privacy rules. 

Settlement 

FINMA banned the former heads of global foreign exchange trading and global foreign exchange spot trading from holding senior management positions at firms supervised by FINMA for four and five years, respectively. 

It banned four traders in foreign exchange and precious metals from the bank’s spot trading desk in Opfikon, outside Zurich, for at least one year each. 

Four other enforcement proceedings against UBS traders were discontinued in August, FINMA said. 

UBS said in May it had settled an investigation by US authorities over alleged rigging of currency markets by agreeing to pay $545 million (CHF542 million) in combined fines.