Former London Citigroup forex trader sacked over 'confidence breach' wins case against bank

A former Citigroup foreign exchange trader has won an unfair dismissal case against the bank after he was sacked. A tribunal in London ruled against Citi on Tuesday (17 November), saying that the allegations of confidential information sharing were unfair.

Fired in November 2014, forex trader Perry Stimpson had worked at the bank for 25 years. He said the actions he was fired over, sharing customer information via online chatrooms, was common custom and he said his managers knew about it.

"We had few guidelines, and the punishment handed to me was both harsh and unfair," Stimpson stated. "It was as if I had been fined for driving at 30mph along a road five years before a 20mph speed limit had been put in place."

The London employment tribunal ruled in his favour. The case is the first of many similar cases to be heard in the City. After scandals such as the Libor and Forex rigging practices were uncovered, many employees of big banks have appealed after they were given the sack.

In Stimpson's case, the judge Allison Russell said that she found his firing was unfair, although she said he contributed to his dismissal.

Citigroup issued a statement saying: "While we are disappointed by the tribunal's decision, individual accountability is important to us and for that reason we defended the case in the tribunal. We expect our employees to adhere to the highest ethical standards and will not tolerate breaches of our code of conduct."

Citigroup has made headlines since before the financial crash in 2008 because of alleged and sometimes proven misconduct. Watchdog and regulator the Financial Conduct Authority has fined Citigroup more than £225m ($342m) for failing to comply with rules, making it the biggest City bad boy, right after UBS.