(20 May 2015) RESTRICTION SUMMARY: AP CLIENTS ONLY
SHOTLIST
++STORYLINE UPDATED WITH CORRECTED FIGURES AT 1620 GMT++
AP TELEVISION - AP CLIENTS ONLY
Washington DC - 20 May 2015
1. US Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch and other officials arrive for news conference
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Loretta E. Lynch, US Attorney-General
"We're here to announce a major law enforcement action against international financial institutions that for years participated in a brazen display of collusion in foreign exchange rate market manipulation and will, as a result, pay a total of nearly 3 billion dollars in fines and penalties."
3. Cutaway wide of Lynch and officials
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Loretta E. Lynch, US Attorney-General
"Today's historic resolutions are the latest in our ongoing efforts to investigate and prosecute financial crimes and they serve as a stark reminder that this department of justice intends to vigorously prosecute all those who tilt the economic system in their favour, who subvert our market places and who enrich themselves at the expense of the American consumer."
5. Cutaway (REPEAT)
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Loretta E. Lynch, US Attorney-General
"Four of the world's largest banks have agreed to plead guilty to felony anti-trust violations. They are CitiCorp, JP Morgan Chase and Company, Barclays PLC and the Royal Bank of Scotland PLC. These four banks have acknowledged their role in this conspiracy and committed to changing their corporate cultures starting at the highest levels. They've also agreed to pay criminal fines totalling more than 2.5 billion dollars, the largest set of anti-trust fines ever obtained in the history of the Department of Justice."
7. Cutaway (REPEAT)
STORYLINE
A group of global banks will pay more than 5 billion US dollars in penalties and plead guilty to rigging the world's currency market, the first time in more than two decades that major players in the financial industry have admitted to criminal wrongdoing.
JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Barclays and The Royal Bank of Scotland conspired with one another to fix rates on US dollars and euros traded in the huge global market for currencies, according to a resolution announced Wednesday between the banks and the Department of Justice.
A group of currency traders, who called themselves "The Cartel," allegedly shared customer orders through chat rooms and used that information to profit at the expense of their clients.
The resolution is complex and involves multiple regulators in the US and overseas.
The four banks will pay a combined 2.5 billion US dollars in criminal penalties to the DOJ for criminal manipulation of currency rates between December 2007 and January 2013, according to the agreement.
The Federal Reserve is slapping them with an additional 1.6 billion US dollars in fines, as the banks' chief regulator.
Finally, British bank Barclays is paying an additional 1.3 billion US dollars to British and US regulators for its role in the scheme.
Another bank, Switzerland's UBS, has agreed to plead guilty to manipulating key interest rates and will pay a separate criminal penalty of 203 million US dollars.
Big banks overall have already been fined billions of dollars for their role in the housing bubble and subsequent financial crisis.
But even so, the latest penalties are big.
Including a separate agreement with the Federal Reserve announced Wednesday and another announced last year, the group of banks will pay nearly 9 billion US dollars in fines for manipulating the 5.3 trillion US dollar global currency market.
The agreement between the banks and the DOJ is subject to court approval.
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