EU fines five major banks 1 bn euros for currency collusion

The EU's powerful antitrust authority on Thursday fined five major banks -- including Barclays and Citigroup -- for collusion in the massive foreign exchange currency market.

The European Commission fined Barclays, the Royal Bank of Scotland, Citigroup, JPMorgan and Japan's MUFG Bank a total of 1.07 billion euros after finding that traders colluded to fix exchange rates using chat rooms, a statement said.