Fed Bars Chat-room Forex Trader From Banking Industry

The Federal Reserve on Tuesday barred Matthew Gardiner, a former foreign exchange trader at UBS Group AG, from the banking industry for his role in the manipulation of foreign exchange pricing benchmarks in a notorious industry chat room dubbed "The Cartel." Gardiner consented to the ban for disclosing confidential customer information to traders at other banks and for manipulating foreign exchange rates in concert with the other traders from 2008 until 2013. Last year, four major banks, Citigroup Inc. , J.P. Morgan & Co. , Barclays PLC and Royal Bank of Scotland PLC pleaded guilty to criminal charges in the chat-room case and were fined almost $6 billion. At the time, prosecutors said they could bring cases against individuals. UBS was granted immunity to criminal charges because it was the first bank to come forward and work with U.S. authorities.