Barclays Faces Huge Fine and Charges of Rudeness
Barclays Faces Huge Fine and Charges of Rudeness
Awkward. One of the newish regulatory probes afflicting Barclays has brought us another batch of inter-trader communications they clearly never thought would see the light of day.
This particular investigation, which could see Barc landed with a record $470m fine over alleged US energy market manipulation, circles around four traders on the bank’s West Coast power desk who allegedly thought it wise to exchange messages explaining how they would “crap on” certain prices in one market to profit in another.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is charging that the bank and its traders bought and sold electricity in enough volume to move exchange prices up or down to benefit parallel swap positions.
According to FERC, Barclays engaged in this activity for 655 product days for 35 monthly products and caused losses to market participants estimated at $139.3m. And made $34.9m.
But here’s the fun stuff from the FERC doc (our emphasis):