swiss regulator bars 6 exubs traders managers in currency probe dealbookswiss regulator bars 6 former ubs workers in currency inquiry 17 2015london a swiss regulator said on thursday that it had barred six former managers and traders at ubs from the financial industry in an investigation into manipulation of the foreign currency marketsubs was among a group of the worlds largest banks that paid a combined 425 billion in november 2014 to settle with british and swiss regulators and the commodity futures trading commission in the united states over their role in manipulating foreign currency marketsthe swiss bank also agreed in may to pay more than 500 million in additional fines to the justice department and other authorities in the united states for its role in the manipulation of currency markets and benchmark interest rateson thursday the swiss financial market supervisory authority known as finma said it was blocking the former head of global foreign exchange trading at ubs from holding senior management positions at institutions supervised by the regulator for four years the former head of the global foreign exchange spot trading desk was barred for five yearsthe regulator also barred for at least one year four former traders on the foreign exchange desk at ubs in zurichthe regulator did not identify any of the individuals by name but said none of those involved were still active at ubsfinma concluded that the individuals in question were directly responsible for the serious breaches of regulation at ubs in this business it said in a news releasethe regulator said its investigation had determined that those responsible for management of foreign currency trading at ubs tolerated and at times encouraged behavior which was improper and against the interests of clientsmanagers the regulator said were aware that traders were able to use group chats to share information and the potential risk of doing so but failed to implement adequate systems and controls and to consistently monitor them for compliance with internal and external rulesthe regulator said traders shared confidential client information sometimes revealed the identity of clients to third parties and traded ahead of client orders in a practice known as frontrunning traders also repeatedly tried to manipulate foreign currency benchmarks the authorities saida ubs spokesman declined on thursday to commentthe swiss financial market supervisory authority began enforcement proceedings against 11 ubs employees in november 2014 following its investigation the regulator discontinued proceedings against four of those in august proceedings continue against one other ubs employee the regulator said