FCA v. Barclays Bank PLC (FX benchmark manipulation, 2015)

Settled

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In May 2015 the FCA fined Barclays Bank PLC £284,432,000 for failing to control its London FX business between 2008 and 2013, which allowed traders to attempt to manipulate the WMR and ECB fix rates in collusion with traders at other firms.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

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Disgorgement

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Prejudgment interest

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Total relief

—

Alleged gain

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Penalty as published

£284m

A dash means the release did not state a figure we could extract, not that the figure is zero. Penalty and disgorgement are stored separately so aggregates across the library do not double-count the same dollars. This regulator states penalties in GBP. The figure is recorded as published and is not converted, so it does not appear in the USD totals or medians used elsewhere on this site.

What is alleged to have happened

The Financial Conduct Authority issued this final notice on 20 May 2015. Barclays settled at an earlier stage than a full contest and took a 20 per cent discount from a penalty of £355,540,000.

The notice finds that from 1 January 2008 to 15 October 2013 Barclays breached Principle 3 by failing to organise and control its London G10 and emerging-market spot and options FX business, so that the front office did not manage risks around confidentiality, conflicts of interest and trading conduct. That allowed traders to attempt to manipulate the WMR and ECB fixes in collusion with traders at other firms, among other behaviours.

This library tags the matter as FX fixing and not benchmark submission rigging, because the FX fixes are set from transactions and the notice's references to LIBOR concern other firms' earlier cases. The tagging is ours, not the regulator's.

For the regulator's own account of the facts, read the primary document linked above. This page deliberately summarises the structured record rather than reproducing the release.

What technique is this, and how does it work?

This action is tagged with one technique in our taxonomy. The tagging is ours: regulators charge statutory provisions, not technique names, so the mapping is an editorial judgement described in our editorial policy.

• FX fixing — see how it works, what statute it engages, and every other action tagged the same way.

Timeline

1. 2015-05-20 FCA final notice

Primary documents

Everything on this page derives from the documents below. Where our summary and the primary document disagree, the primary document is right.

• FCA final notice

The linked release is published by the issuing regulator under its own terms. Our summary and narrative above are our own writing.

Same matter

The library links these 2 records because they appear to concern one matter: the same lead defendant, an overlapping technique tag and close filing dates, or a shared court docket or a release that cites the other. Records are listed by date filed.

This grouping is the library's, made by matching names, techniques, dates and citations when the site is built. It is not the regulator's or a court's determination that the records are one case, and it errs towards missing a link rather than making a false one.

Related actions

Other actions in the library sharing at least one technique tag with this one.

Record added September 10, 2026. submit a correction.