SEC official blasts waivers for bad-actor banks

A Securities and Exchange Commission official is blasting waivers the financial regulator approved for five banks whose traders manipulated the world’s foreign-exchange market. In an angrily worded dissent, SEC Commissioner Kara Stein refused to support waivers enabling Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, London-based Barclays, Swiss banking giant UBS and Royal Bank of Scotland to continue normal activities despite the rate-rigging findings. “Allowing these institutions to continue business as usual, after multiple and serious regulatory and criminal violations, poses risks to investors and the American public that are being ignored,” Stein wrote in a statement dated Thursday, one day after the SEC approved the waivers. More on USA Today here.