A Conspiracy Against the Public

Five global banks agreed to pay more than $5 billion in combined penalties and plead guilty to criminal charges to resolve a long-running U.S. investigation into whether traders colluded to move foreign-currency rates for their own financial benefit. 

The settlements largely close the book on the latest industrywide investigation, one of a steady stream of probes into mortgage misdeeds, manipulative trading behavior and tax evasion. The biggest global banks have paid more than $60 billion in penalties over the past two years to resolve allegations of wrongdoing. 

Four of the banks, Barclays PLC, Citigroup Inc., J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to conspiring to manipulate prices in the $500 billion-a-day market for U.S. dollars and euros, authorities said. 

Viswanatha, Aruna. "Banks Pay $5.6 Billion to Settle U.S. Probe." The Wall Street Journal., Thursday, May 21, 2015, A1, Accessed on May 21, 2015, http://www.wsj.com/articles/global-banks-to-pay-5-6-billion-in-penalties-in-fx-libor-probe-1432130400

Apparently, some traders at these banks conspired to manipulate rates at certain times of the day so as to enrich themselves not only at the expense of others but also at the expense of a free, fair and open foreign exchange market. The business ethics ethos of the group is articulated succinctly, if not douchebaggedly, in one of their captured chat exchanges wherein a party writes, "if you ain't cheating, you ain't trying." 

Adam Smith says, "deal with it."

Although the following passage is often misinterpreted, I can't help but think of Adam Smith when I read of such shenanigans. As the man from Kirkcaldy reminds us, "People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices."

Illud natura non patitur, ut aliorum spoliis nostras facultates, copias, opes augeamus.