The National Court hearing heard that “corrupt culture” had spread to the HSBC Forex office

A “rotten culture” spread at HSBC’s foreign exchange trading table between 2004 and 2006, when bankers misused confidential information to “face” customer orders, the UK High Court on Monday said.

When the allegations began in the seven-week trial, the currency manager ECU Group accused HSBC of 52 fraudulent and fraudulent conduct with the bank during that period. HSBC has rejected the claims for a variety of reasons.

The case will reopen old wounds in the $ 6.6 trillion-a-day foreign exchange market when in 2013 some global banks complained that they had systematically manipulated currency prices. HSBC paid $ 343 million in fines and refunds to the Financial Conduct Authority as well as $ 276.5 million to the U.S. Federal Reserve for failing to oversee FX trading between 2008 and 2013.

The ECU, which was an HSBC customer, alleges that the behavior of HSBC dealers included in the litigation – including confidential knowledge of an on – demand customer request. He also alleges that HBPB was a “pip robbery” by private bank HSBC, where it added “pip” secrets or increases to the execution prices reported to the ECU in order to make illegal profits.

The ECU first complained to HSBC in February 2006 about unusual FX price movements, but was told after an internal HSBC probe that there was no evidence of wrongdoing.

The ECU began reviewing the trade again in 2016 when the U.S. Department of Justice filed a formal indictment against former HSBC FX traders, on the account of another HSBC client (Cairn Energy) with an alleged front.

On Monday, Richard Lissack QC, an ECU lawyer, complained to the Supreme Court that the lawsuit was an “embarrassing episode” in HSBC’s history.

“The case of the ECU is that HSBC had a rotten foreign exchange trading table between 2004 and 2006. Traders took customer orders as an opportunity to enrich themselves,” Lissack claims.

In written arguments, Lissack saw HSBC traders as an “easy target” for ECU trades.

HSBC will open its case on Tuesday. In its writings, the bank said the ECU’s “horribly old allegations are time-barred” because the alleged incidents took place more than 15 years ago and said the ECU’s lawsuit was “of fabricated and legally inconsistent claims”.

“The ECU is now engaged in a cynical and opportunistic effort to revive these outdated claims, and should do so in 2006 and should do so,” he says.

“The relevant orders were not made in advance and, except for a few isolated incidents, the HSBC parties did not report the wrong ECUs,” he said in written arguments, adding that he denied any fraud or deliberate concealment in the case. The case continues.