: The Fed terminates cease and desist order against Citigroup related to anti-competitive foreign exchange practices

The Federal Reserve on Thursday said it has terminated a 2015 cease and desist order related to foreign exchange trading practices at Citigroup Inc. C. The move comes after a unit of the bank pleaded guilty to a criminal violation of the U.S. antitrust laws, “based on a conspiracy to eliminate competition in the purchase and sale of the EUR/USD currency pair including, in certain instances, the coordination of trading around the WM/R and ECB benchmark fixes,” according to the order. The Fed required the bank to strengthen its practices around risk management. The bank has also adopted a firmwide audit and compliance program. In 2015, Citi paid a $925 million fine to the Justice Department in the largest payment levied against five major banks related to the FX probe. The bank also paid a $342 million fine to the U.S. Federal Reserve. A Citigroup spokesperson did not immediately reply to an email from MarketWatch. Citigroup stock was up 1% in recent trading.

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