Competition record
UBS
Deep profile · 1 linked library matter
UBS is the Swiss bank fined in the European forex-benchmark cartel. Traders coordinated in chat rooms around the WM/Reuters fix from about 2007 to 2013, alongside JPMorgan, Citi, Barclays, and RBS.
Overview
UBS is the Swiss bank. Its investment bank runs a large foreign-exchange desk, and clients from wealth management to corporate treasuries deal at or around published benchmarks. The WM/Reuters fix is one of those benchmarks: a rate struck from trading in a set daily window, then used to value portfolios and to fill client orders.
The Commission found UBS traders in the same kind of chat-room cartel as JPMorgan, Citi, Barclays, and RBS, from about 2007 to 2013. The chats were among competitors. Information about customer orders heading into the fix was not each bank's private business once it was shared, and the trading around the fix was coordinated. UBS is the Swiss participant. RBS, in the same decision, is the British bank now called NatWest.
Library status is fined. This profile states no UBS fine and no case total. A client who asked the bank to deal at the fix was relying on a rate the chats were aimed at moving.
Competition footprint
Chat-room coordination into the WM/Reuters window is the conduct, across about 2007 to 2013.
UBS is named with JPMorgan, Citi, Barclays, and RBS.
The benchmark is an input to contracts and funds, which is why a trading-desk cartel reaches beyond the banks.
Consumer & business angle
A UBS client filled at the fix could be trading into a window the client's own bank had discussed with rivals.
Funds and companies that never opened a chat still used the published rate the next morning.
What to watch
- Benchmark-fix claims that name UBS among the chat-room banks.
- Surveillance of multi-bank chats on UBS's FX desk, measured against the 2007-2013 finding.
Markets
foreign exchange · currency benchmarks · foreign exchange spot
Also known as: ubs ag, ubs group