UBS Granted Conditional Immunity From FX Prosecution By DOJ Antitrust Division

(RTTNews) - Swiss lender UBS Group AG (UBS) Wednesday said it has approved entering into resolutions with the US Department of Justice or DOJ, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System or Fed and the Connecticut Department of Banking or CT DOB in their investigations of the global foreign exchange markets.

This follows the firm's resolutions last November with the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority, UK Financial Conduct Authority and the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

UBS said it continues to cooperate with ongoing investigations by other authorities in this industry-wide matter, which include investigations of individuals.

As a result of these resolutions, UBS has not been criminally charged for forex conduct. The DOJ will also not file any charges concerning its investigations into the firm's V10 forex-related structured products and its precious metals business.

In resolving the forex matter with the DOJ, UBS received conditional immunity from prosecution for Euro/USD collusion from the Antitrust Division, which will also not prosecute UBS for any other forex conduct.

This immunity reflects UBS's role as the company that first reported potential misconduct to the DOJ, and the full cooperation provided to the DOJ and other authorities globally.

The DOJ used its sole discretion to terminate its 2012 Non-Prosecution Agreement with UBS related to LIBOR. As a consequence, UBS AG has agreed to plead guilty to one count of wire fraud for conduct in the LIBOR matter, pay a $203 million fine and accept a three-year term of probation.

This guilty plea for LIBOR by UBS relates to the same conduct that was the basis of the plea by the firm's Japanese subsidiary when the firm resolved its LIBOR issues in 2012.

The Fed and the CT DOB jointly issued a cease and desist order finding that UBS engaged in unsafe and unsound business practices relating to its forex business. UBS will pay a penalty of $342 million to the Fed and has agreed to undertake a series of remedial measures.

UBS said it is fully provisioned for these resolutions. As a consequence, they will have no financial impact on second quarter 2015 results.