The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has returned about S$10bn in temporary fines which it had levied on 19 banks in 2013 as penalty for a global probe into alleged manipulation of financial benchmarks and foreign exchanges.
MAS has returned additional statutory reserves to the 19 banks, which include UBS, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Royal Bank of Scotland and Deutsche Bank.
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The central bank said in a statement, "These banks have completed the remedial actions to strengthen the governance, internal controls and surveillance systems for their benchmark submissions and trading operations."
Last year, MAS detected some unethical practices at the banks which enabled traders to attempt to manipulate market benchmarks which included the Singapore interbank offered rate or Sibor.
A total of 133 traders were found engaged in manipulation of benchmarks.
Following the probe, banks were asked to deposit statutory reserves with the central bank ranging from S$100m to S$1.2bn, based on the extent of the alleged abuses of the lender, at zero interest for one year.
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By GlobalDataJ.P. Morgan and Citigroup were directed to place minimum reserves between S$100m and S$300m, while ING Bank, the Royal Bank of Scotland and UBS, had to place between S$1bn and S$1.2 bn each.
The deposits have now been refunded as part of a plan which was targeted at refunding the banks, without interest, after a year if the lenders have rectified the loopholes that could have enabled the alleged attempts at rate-rigging.
