In a statement, the watchdog said it had provisionally found Citi, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Morgan Stanley and Royal Bank of Canada each unlawfully shared information by participating in one or more series of one-to-one conversations in Bloomberg chatrooms between a small number of traders.

The conversations related to buying and selling of UK government bonds - specifically, gilts and gilt asset swaps - and included details on pricing and other aspects of their trading strategies.

(Reporting By Sinead Cruise, editing by Lawrence White)