The European Union has imposed a combined fine of $1.2 billion on Barclays, Citigroup, JP Morgan, MUFG and Royal Bank of Scotland over foreign exchange rigging.
Individual traders at the banks had allegedly formed two cartels to manipulate the spot foreign exchange market for 11 currencies, including the dollar, the euro and the pound.
They exchanged sensitive information including client orders and their open risk positions.
Swiss bank UBS was exempted from a 285 million euro fine since it alerted the existence of two cartels to the European Commission.
Citigroup was hit with the highest fine of 311 million euros.
About European Union:
Headquarters: Brussels, Belgium
Founded: 1 November 1993
Founders: Germany, France, Italy, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg
It has an estimated population of about 513 million.
Member states : 28
The EU countries are: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Republic of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the UK.