Investigation: HSBC, Citi suspend traders amid probe

As currency investigation ramps up, banks themselves are scrutinising their employees more closely.

LONDON: HSBC and Citigroup both suspended foreign exchange traders on Friday as a global probe into possible currency market manipulation intensified. Regulators from the US arrived in London this week, stepping up an investigation in which they are working with Britain’s financial watchdog to determine whether traders at some of the world’s biggest banks colluded to manipulate the $5.3 trillion-a-day foreign exchange market. The investigations centre on senior traders’ communication of client positions via electronic chatrooms, which featured prominently also in a probe into the rigging of a key interest rate known as the London interbank offered rate, or Libor. As the currency investigation ramps up, the banks themselves are scrutinising their employees more closely and most are now carrying out internal investigations. In addition, Deutsche Bank suspended several traders in New York this week, while US regulators descended on Citigroup’s London offices.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 19^th, 2014.

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