Financial Conduct Authority Chief Executive Officer Martin Wheatley has told UK lawmakers that ten banks have submitted evidence to the financial regulator to support claims of foreign-exchange benchmarks manipulation. Wheatley said to lawmakers in London today that the latest allegations bore a similarity with the London interbank offered rate rigging scandal, which had sparked several reviews, including in currency-rate trading, and FCA issuing $6 billion in fines total.
Wheatley added that the financial regulator is currently conducting an investigation on several benchmarks that are operating in London. The Telegraph said in a report that Wheatley, addressing members of the Treasury Select Committee in the UK, said the decision to launch a probe was due to claims that major benchmarks had been rigging their rates for their own benefit. The UK newspaper added that the foreign exchange benchmarks are being used in the markets in order to set the values of investments worth trillions of pounds.
"There are a number of benchmarks that operate in London that we're investigating because of concerns that have been raised with us," he told them.
Withholding pertinent details about the ongoing benchmarks investigation, Wheatley just said that the probe could extend further this year, but was hopeful that they could conclude the investigation next year.
In October of last year, Bloomberg said the FCA announced its intention to launch an official probe into currency-rate trading, and has joined US and Swiss regulators in conducting reviews on the $5.3 trillion-a-day market. Bloomberg said the seven biggest foreign-exchange dealers in the world have either suspended, put on leave or fired its employee traders in light of the probes.
In an earlier Reuters report, Britain's financial watchdog said it had already issued notices of warning to two bankers for playing a part in the manipulation allegedly made in benchmark interest rates. Citing FCA, one of them is a submitter benchmark interest rates, and the other is a bank manager.
