Commodity Futures Trading Commission ♦ Office of Public Affairs ♦ 202-418-5800

Commodity Futures Trading Commission

Office of Public Affairs

Three Lafayette Centre

1155 21st Street, NW 

Washington, DC 

20581

www.cftc.gov

May 20, 2015

Foreign Exchange Benchmark Case: In re Barclays Bank PLC

Examples of Misconduct in Private Chat Rooms

Traders Discussing Whether to Invite a Barclays Trader Into a Private Chat Room 

(Citibank, JPMorgan, UBS)

Bank Z Trader: 7:49:55

7:50:27

are we ok with keeping this as is

ie the info lvls & risk sharing?

Bank X Trader: 7:50:27 well...

Bank Z Trader: 7:50:30 that is the qu[estion]

Bank X Trader: 7:50:32

7:50:39

7:50:43

you know him best obv...

if you think we need to adjust it

then he shouldn’t be[] in chat

Bank Y Trader: 7:50:54

7:51:00

7:51:08

7:51:13

7:51:16

7:51:21

7:51:26

yeah that is key

simple question [Bank Z trader]

I trust you implicitly [Bank Z trader]

and your judgement

you know him

will he tell rest of desk stuff 

or god forbin his nyk...

Bank X Trader: 7:51:46

7:51:51

7:52:01

7:52:17

7:52:21

7:52:33

7:52:46

yes 

that’s really imp[ortant] q[uestion]

dont want other numpty’s in mkt to know

but not only that

is he gonna protect us

like we protect each other against our own branches

ie if you guys are rhs1.. and my nyk is lhs..ill say my nyk lhs in 

few

Bank Z Trader: 7:53:52 what concerns me is that i know he’ll never tell us when at risk...

 

1

 If an FX trader has orders to sell of the first currency listed in any currency pair, it is often referred to as being on the left-hand side, or 

“lhs.” If an FX trader references right hand side, or “rhs,” it indicates that the FX trader is a buyer of the first currency listed in a 

currency pair.
Commodity Futures Trading Commission ♦ Office of Public Affairs ♦ 202-418-5800

Traders from Two Banks “Double Team” to Attempt to Manipulate Fix 

(Barclays, JPMorgan)

At 3:43:50, a trader from Bank W asked a trader from Bank Y whether he needed to buy Euros in the market in 

the forthcoming fix. The Bank Y trader responded that he had a net buy order for the fix, which he subsequently 

confirmed as totaling EUR105 million. At 3:44:04, the Bank Y trader offered to transfer that net buy order to the 

Bank W trader. The Bank W trader replied “maybe” and then stated that he had a net buy order for EUR 150 

million.

The traders had the following exchange:

Bank W Trader: 3:46:53 i’d prefer we join forces

Bank Y Trader: 3:46:56

3:46:59

Perfick

lets do this...

Bank Y Trader: 3:47:11 lets double team them

Bank W Trader: 3:47:12 YESssssssssssss

Immediately after the fixing window, the traders congratulated themselves:

Bank W Trader: 4:03:25 sml rumour we haven’t lost it

Bank Y Trader: 4:03:45

4:03:46

4:03:48

we

do

dollarrr

Traders Share Their “Scores” 

(Barclays, UBS)

In another chat, traders for Bank W and three other Banks exchanged positions leading into the WM/R 4 p.m. 

fix. The Bank Y trader said “it cant be a good day to be [right hand side].” Once the four traders determined 

they were all the same direction, the Bank W trader asked if “we gonna be able to get it to 05” to which the 

Bank Y trader responded “is that the troyal fkn we.” After the fixing window closed the Bank X trader said 

“nice call” and the chat room members gave their “scores” or profits from the fix. The chat room members each 

claimed they made between $60,000 and $220,000.

Traders Attempt to Manipulate Fix by False Submissions 

(Barclays)

In one chat a RUB/USD trader suggested “we should all lower fix by several kopecks” to which another trader 

replied “yes.”2 A third trader agreed that “it is a right idea to lower the fix by a few kopecks.” The Bank W trader 

responded “so what, 5 kopecks and all/everyone is splendid.” After that conversation, the Bank W trader 

submitted an artificially low indicative bid and offer to the CME, consistent with his conversation with the other 

traders, that was used by the CME to calculate the final CME/EMTA Rate.

 

2 RUB/USD chatroom language is in Russian and quotations come from an unofficial translation.