A group of foreign-exchange traders plan to challenge findings by Britain’s financial regulator in the currency-rigging probe because they weren’t given a right to respond, two people with knowledge of the matter said.
The group has until tomorrow to submit a challenge against the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority to the Upper Tribunal, the U.K. court with jurisdiction for complaints against the agency, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the move hasn’t been made public yet.
The FCA last month fined five banks, including Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc (RBS) and Citigroup Inc. (C), 1.1 billion pounds ($1.7 billion) for “failing to control business practices” in their spot foreign-exchange units. The watchdog also published message transcripts, and while it didn’t disclose any names, the employees have since argued they are identifiable, the people said. U.K. law requires the FCA to give a person or firm the right to reply to a penalty notice before it is published.
If they successfully challenge the settlements, the traders would be able to limit their risk of being sued personally over the foreign-exchange rigging scandal, one of the people said. They would also reduce their employers’ ability to terminate them for cause, the person added.
Former JPMorgan Chase & Co. International Chief Investment Officer Achilles Macris won an appeal against the regulator in April, claiming he should have been allowed to respond to the FCA’s findings before they were published in the regulator’s settlement with JPMorgan over the London Whale in September 2013. The FCA fined the New York-based bank 138 million pounds for breaches in connection with a $6.2 billion trading loss. The FCA is appealing the decision, with a hearing scheduled this week.
Ruth Wharram, a spokeswoman for the FCA in London, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
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