Major Banks Fined £100m for Sharing UK Bond Market Information

The UK's Competition and Markets Authority penalized four banks for traders' illegal exchanges of sensitive data about government bonds between 2009 and 2013.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) fined Citi, HSBC, Morgan Stanley, and Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) a total of £104.5 million for sharing sensitive information about UK government bonds in Bloomberg chatrooms.
Deutsche Bank, also implicated, avoided fines by proactively reporting the misconduct and cooperating with the investigation.
The illegal information sharing, which occurred between 2009 and 2013, involved traders discussing UK government bonds (gilts) and related trading strategies, potentially harming taxpayers and distorting competition.
The CMA acknowledged that the banks have since implemented significant compliance measures to prevent similar violations, with none of the traders involved still employed at the institutions.
RBC received the highest penalty of £34.2 million, followed by Morgan Stanley (£29.7 million), HSBC (£23.4 million), and Citi (£17.2 million), with fines reduced due to settlements and cooperation.