May 19, 2017
Federal Reserve imposes $1.2 million fine and permanent ban on employment against former Barclays Bank PLC employee
For release at 3:00 p.m. EDT
The Federal Reserve Board on Friday announced that it has imposed a $1.2 million fine and a permanent ban on employment in the banking industry against Christopher Ashton, the former Global Head of Foreign Exchange (FX) Spot Trading at Barclays Bank PLC, in connection with the manipulation of FX pricing benchmarks.
Ashton failed to answer, appear, or request a hearing in administrative law proceedings after the Board charged him in June 2016 with unsafe and unsound practices related to his use of electronic chat rooms to coordinate FX trading, facilitate manipulation of FX pricing benchmarks, and disclose confidential customer information to traders at other organizations, as well as his failure to appropriately supervise other Barclays traders.
The enforcement proceedings against Ashton follow the Board's May 2015 enforcement actions against Barclays for unsafe and unsound practices related to its compliance and control failures concerning its practices in the FX markets. The Board required Barclays to pay $342 million in penalties.
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