Citi forex trader Perry Stimpson wins unfair dismissal case; compensation yet to be agreed

Just a few weeks after FinanceFeeds first reported that Perry Stimpson, a former FX trader at Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C) in London, had taken a sizable swing at his former employer by going to tribunal, it has emerged that he has won his case against the financial giant for unfair dismissal.

Litigation by employees against large FX dealers and banks is very rare indeed, largely due to the legal might and vast resources that such institutions possess, however the tribunal, held in London yesterday, found in Mr. Stimpson’s favor and stated that the bank “breached the claimant’s contract of employment in failing to pay him notice.”

Despite adding that Mr. Stimpson’s conduct had “contributed to his dismissal”, the tribunal ruled in his favor, detailing that “the claimant believed that he was not breaching his duties of confidentiality in large part due to the way in which he saw his peers and immediate managers behave” in relation to accusations by Citi surrounding the way that Mr. Stimpson, along with some of his fellow FX traders, had handled sensitive client information which led to him being fired in 2014.

At the time that Mr. Stimpson, who represented himself, instigated the tribunal against Citi, Jerome Kemp, Citi’s Global Head of Futures was selected to represent Citi in the case. Mr. Kemp is also responsible for the OTC clearing business, and testified that he had serious concerns over the descriptions used by traders, including Mr. Stimpson, used to refer to customers, which he considers to be disrespectful, as well as the se of messaging systems to provide confidential information about trades and customers in order to manipulate benchmarks.

Mr. Stimpson’s dismissal took place at a time during which many banks terminated the employment of, or suspended, FX traders during the interbank FX benchmark manipulation cases that were brought against several banks last year by regulators, and followed up by class action lawsuits.

Although the compensation amount has yet to be determined by the tribunal with a date to be set in order to establish the exact award to Mr. Stimpson, this could set a precedent in employment litigation and open the floodgates for other traders to look toward tribunal to recover any remuneration due that was declined by banks and FX dealers post-dismissal.