UBS AG, Switzerland's largest bank, has agreed to pay $135 million in order to settle claims in a lawsuit that it participated in a rigging scheme involving rates for foreign currency-exchange. In its recent 2014 annual report, AG also reported that it upped the total pay of its CEO by 4 percent.
The case's lead law firm announcement on Friday that the settlement revolves investors' class-action lawsuit against the banking giant. The various investors, including various pension funds, had conducted foreign currency transactions with UBS.
Besides UBS, the investors also sued 11 other global banks, including some of the largest in the world. They accused them of cooperating secretly to boost their profits.
The judicial systems in the U.S., U.K. and Switzerland are closely scrutinizing the activity of the currency market, worth trillions of dollars. Banks such as JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, and UBS were fined a total of $3.4 billion in civil settlements recently. The Justice Department of the U.S. is also conducting an ongoing criminal investigation.
After settling its huge lawsuit on Friday, UBS lowered its previously-reported 2014 net profit. UBS dropped its profits for the fourth quarter by 105 million Swiss francs ($104.4 million), according to Reuters.
In a public statement, the Zurich-based UBS noted that the adjustment was due to the "matters of 134 million francs." It is now reporting a fourth-quarter net profit of 3.46 billion francs ($3.45 billion).
Last year, UBS received a $1 billion bill to settle other claims of wrongdoing. In addition to the ongoing investigation by the U.S.'s Department of Justice, French authorities are investigating whether the bank assisted affluent people to conduct tax evasion.
UBS AG is also serving as a defendant in a class-action lawsuit from the U.S. It involves a benchmark for silver pricing.
In UBS's 2014 annual report, the bank stated that in that year it increased the total compensation of its CEO (Chief Executive Officer) Sergio Ermotti by approximately 4 percent, to 11.16 million Swiss francs ($11.1 million).
The Swiss bank praised Ermotti for his "sound" leadership, and the bank's "strong" performance. Does the 1990 hit song "Things That Make You Go Hmmm" come to mind?