Five of the world's largest banks -- including Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Barclays and the Royal Bank of Scotland -- have been fined approximately $5.7 billion for conspiring to manipulate the price of U.S. dollars and euros exchanged in the foreign currency market.

The four listed banks have also agreed to plead guilty to federal charges over manipulation of foreign exchange rates, while the fifth bank, Switzerland's UBS AG, will plead guilty to rigging benchmark interest rates.

On Wednesday, the Department of Justice released a statement detailing the settlement and the corrupt practices that the banks engaged in. Motivated by greed, the DOJ said the banks described themselves as members of "The Cartel" and used code words to manipulate the currency exchange market from December 2007 to January 2013.

"For more than five years, traders in 'The Cartel' used a private electronic chat room to manipulate the spot market's exchange rate between euros and dollars using coded language to conceal their collusion," U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch said. 

According to Lynch, the currency manipulation "inflated the banks' profits while harming countless consumers, investors and institutions around the globe -- from pension funds to major corporations, and including the banks' own customers."

Although none of the parties involved in the criminal activity will be sent to prison, Lynch asserted that the hefty fines and additional oversight will deter banks from participating in corrupt practices moving forward.

"The penalty all these banks will now pay is fitting considering the long-running and egregious nature of their anti-competitive conduct," she said at a Washington news conference, reports The Los Angeles Times. "It is commensurate with the pervasive harm done. And it should deter competitors in the future from chasing profits without regard to fairness, to the law or to the public welfare."

The banks also agreed to what the DOJ called three years of "corporate probation" that would include federal court supervision and regular reporting to authorities to ensure that the firms had ended "all criminal activity."

Citigroup has been charged with a $925 million fine, Barclays will pay $650 million, JPMorgan Chase will cough up $550 million, and the Royal Bank of Scotland will pay $395 million.