经济学人下载:外汇交易:放规矩点!(1)

Finance and Economics
财经

Foreign Exchange Trading: Be good, or else
外汇交易：规矩点

A new code of conduct aims to clean up a tonish market.
新规指向规整通行市场。

Financial market traders have earned a pretty shocking reputation in recent years.
近年来，金融市场交易者名声可谓是骇人听闻。

From manipulating LIBOR, a benchmark interest rate, to rigging the daily fix of foreign-exchange (FX) rates, traders have shown themselves ready not just to stretch the rules, but to collude in outright illegality.
从操纵基准利率-伦敦银行间拆放款利率（LIBOR）到控制每日外汇（FX）利率，种种迹象已表明，交易者不再是仅仅打破规则，而是相互之间非法勾结。

A global code of conduct for the FX market, unveiled on May 25th, aims to put things on a sounder footing.
5月25日，外汇全球行为准则对外公布，该准则旨在打造一个更加稳定的市场。

Drawn up over the past two years by a coalition of central bankers, known as the FX Working Group (FXWG) , and supported by a panel of industry participants, the code's 55 principles lay down international standards on a range of practices, from the handling of confidential information to the pricing and settlement of deals.
该准则中包含55个原则，依据一系列惯例制定国际规范，其范围包括从机密信息的处理到交易的计价和结算，由央行行长联盟花费两年时间拟定，行业参与者小组支持通过。

Such standards seem long overdue in the massive FX market.
在大规模的外汇市场上，这样的标准似乎早应该制定。

Roughly $5trn is traded every day.
每天，约5万亿美元在进行市场交易。

Many companies, pension funds and money managers depend on banks to hedge their exposure to currency fluctuations.
许多公司，养老基金和资金管理者依靠银行来对冲货币波动带来的风险。

Yet in the past traders colluded with one another in internet chat rooms, secretly swapping client data in order to rig the widely used WM/Reuters benchmark exchange rates.
然而过去，为了操纵应用广泛的WM /路透社基准汇率，交易者在互联网聊天室中相互勾结，秘密交换客户数据。

Some were caught and fired.
为此，逮捕和解雇了有些交易者。

Banks such as Citigroup, HSBC, JPMorgan Chase, Royal Bank of Scotland and UBS paid billions of dollars in fines.
花旗集团，汇丰银行，摩根大通银行，苏格兰皇家银行和瑞士银行等银行为此支付了数十亿美元的罚款。

The FX market has always been lightly regulated, but many countries do have codes of conduct, usually drafted by the central bank in consultation with market participants.
外汇市场一直以来监管不力，尽管许多国家有行为准则，该准则通常由中央银行与市场参与者协商起草。

Often, however, the codes were defective: they missed areas vulnerable to malpractice; and were rarely updated, scantily enforced and widely flouted.
但是，通常情况下，这些行为守则存在缺陷：忽略容易滋生腐败的地方；不适时更新，执行不力，形同虚设。

The new code starts with some advantages.
起初，新准则占据一些优势，将取代国家准则，提供统一的国际原则。

It will supersede the national codes, and provide a single global set of principles, with adherence closely monitored by a newly formed committee of central bankers and trading institutions.
中央银行家和交易机构委员会将新成立委员会，该委员将会密切监督新准则统一执行。