The FX Global Code of Conduct

“[I]f you aint cheating, you aint trying,” a Barclays foreign exchange trader infamously shared in an electronic chat of November 2010. Since the FX benchmark manipulation scandal, regulators in multiple jurisdictions have clamped down on controls around setting of interbank rates. Now, a new code supersedes and updates existing guidance, reports Kim Potts.

Kim Potts is a senior associate at law firm Corker Binning in London. She has represented clients in some of the largest FCA investigations and prosecutions for insider dealing, and acted in cases involving alleged money laundering, cartel breaches, as well as a range of serious fraud offences. Contact Kim on kp@corkerbinning.com.

A global code of conduct (the Code) for the foreign exchange (FX) market was published in May 2017. Defined as “a set of global principles of good practice in the foreign exchange market,” the Code provides a common set of guidelines to promote the integrity and effective functioning of the FX market, which has a turnover of more than $5 trillion a day. Developed by a partnership between central banks and Market Participants from 16 different jurisdictions that are international FX trading centres, the Code supersedes and updates existing guidance for participants in FX markets, provided in the United Kingdom by the Non-Investment Products (NIPs) Code.