Barclays `Cartel' Trader Ashton Draws $1.2 Million Fine From Fed

(Bloomberg) -- Barclays Plc’s former head of global spot foreign exchange trading was fined $1.2 million and banned from the banking industry for his involvement in rigging currency rates, the Federal Reserve said Friday.

The Fed said it imposed the penalties after Christopher Ashton failed to respond to the central bank’s June 2016 allegations that he participated in online chat rooms used to manipulate FX prices, according to a statement.

Ashton is allegedly part of The Cartel -- the name given to a now notorious group of senior traders at banks including Barclays, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and UBS Group AG that shared information and agreed on ways to try to move currency benchmarks.

The Fed initially announced its plans to fine Ashton and bar him from the industry in August of last year. The Fed required Barclays to pay $342 million over the FX rigging in a May 2015 settlement.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jesse Westbrook in Washington at jwestbrook1@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jesse Westbrook at jwestbrook1@bloomberg.net, Gregory Mott