{"id":7376,"date":"2018-04-26T09:57:43","date_gmt":"2018-04-26T13:57:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/Life-Insurance-Blog\/?guid=cc08b4610d10a4ebb6a11697991e8af7"},"modified":"2018-04-26T09:57:43","modified_gmt":"2018-04-26T13:57:43","slug":"former-rbc-currency-trader-sues-bank-for-unfair-dismissal-alleges-boss-offered-bribe-to-cover-up-error","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/2018\/04\/26\/former-rbc-currency-trader-sues-bank-for-unfair-dismissal-alleges-boss-offered-bribe-to-cover-up-error\/","title":{"rendered":"Former RBC currency trader sues bank for unfair dismissal, alleges boss offered \u2018bribe\u2019 to cover up error"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A former Royal Bank of Canada currency trader sued the lender for 13 million pounds (US$18 million) for unfair dismissal, alleging that a senior manager had offered him a &#8220;bribe&#8221; to cover up a trading error.<\/p>\n<p>John Banerjee said in a witness statement at an employment tribunal in London this week that six months after joining RBC as an emerging market foreign currency director in June 2015, he lost $880,000 overnight because a colleague failed to carry out an order to abandon a trading position when the South African rand suddenly appreciated.<\/p>\n<p>When Banerjee&#8217;s colleague denied making an error, he said he asked RBC&#8217;s global head of foreign currency trading, Ed Monaghan, to investigate. Monaghan stalled and, when Banerjee insisted on a proper investigation, flew into a &#8220;rage.&#8221;<\/p>\n<ul class=\"related_links\">\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/business.financialpost.com\/news\/fp-street\/rbc-launches-data-sharing-portal-for-app-developers-in-step-towards-open-banking\">RBC launches data sharing portal for app developers in step towards open banking<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/business.financialpost.com\/news\/fp-street\/review-of-sales-practices-at-big-six-banks-finds-risks-of-mis-selling-to-customers\">Review of sales practices at Big Six banks finds risks of \u2018mis-selling\u2019 to customers<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/business.financialpost.com\/news\/fp-street\/canadas-bank-ceos-get-7-pay-raise-to-earn-53-6-million-in-fiscal-2017\">RBC chief Dave McKay tops big banks pay at $12.4 million as CEO wages rise 7%<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&#8220;An investigation will make the department look bad, and that means you will look bad,&#8221; Banerjee cited Monaghan as saying. &#8220;Is it the loss that bothers you? I&#8217;ll cut you a cheque for the loss &#8212; just drop it.&#8221; Banerjee, who is suing for unfair dismissal and failure to protect a whistleblower, described the offer as a &#8220;bribe.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>RBC believes &#8220;this claim to be without merit and are vigorously defending our position,&#8221; the Toronto-based bank said in a statement. Monaghan attended the proceedings Thursday, but declined to comment while the case is ongoing.<\/p>\n<p>Banerjee, who turned 50 earlier this month, said he previously had a successful trading career that included stints at Citigroup Inc., Barclays Plc and Standard Chartered Plc. In August 2016, RBC dismissed him for repeatedly coming late to work and &#8220;exited&#8221; three other people on the spot foreign currency trading team, while Monaghan took early retirement in October 2017, Banerjee said.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Tribunal Caps<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Whistleblowing claims are frequently added to U.K. employment tribunal lawsuits to avoid an 83,700-pound cap on damages. Awards are normally limited to that amount unless a former employee can prove they were the victim of discrimination or had made a public-interest disclosure.<\/p>\n<p>Banerjee said his run-in with Monaghan hadn&#8217;t been his first issue at RBC. He said his managers had also been resistant to changing a policy, which he said created a conflict of interest for traders. He added that no one at the bank had read the policy.<\/p>\n<p>The trader was questioned by Jane Mulcahy, a lawyer for RBC, at the tribunal on Wednesday, who said he was exaggerating some of his claims.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a preposterous thing to say that no one bar yourself had read the policy,&#8221; Mulcahy said.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/\"><em>Bloomberg.com<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>John Banerjee is suing for $18 million. RBC believes &#8216;this claim to be without merit and are vigorously defending our position&#8217;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":578,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7376"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/578"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7376"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7376\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7379,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7376\/revisions\/7379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}