BNP Paribas Fined

New York state bank regulators fined BNP Paribas $350 million for “illegal, unsafe and unsound” currency trading practices that included use of secret hand signals to dupe customers, officials announced late Wednesday, AFP reported. The charges involved “significant, long-term violations,” including fake trades, manipulating currency prices, using confidential information to profit at the customers’ expense, and misleading customers, New York’s Department of Financial Services said in a statement. From 2007 to 2011, the bank “paid little or no attention to the supervision of its foreign exchange trading business, allowing BNPP traders and others to violate New York State law over the course of many years and repeatedly abused the trust of their customers,” Financial Services Superintendent Maria T. Vullo said.