BoE investigation finds no evidence of staff colluding in FX market manipulation

FXStreet (London) - The Bank of England has commented on its foreign exchange market review, saying that it has to date found “no evidence that Bank of England staff colluded in any way in manipulating the foreign exchange market or in sharing confidential client information.”

However, in a release from the BoE, it states that “the Bank requires its staff to follow rigorous internal control processes” and that it has today suspended a member of staff, pending investigation by the Bank into compliance with those processes.

In addition, the release from the BoE states that the Oversight Committee of the Bank’s Court of Directors will lead an investigation to assess whether Bank officials were:

(a) either (i) involved in attempted or actual manipulation of the foreign exchange market (including the WMR FX benchmark), or (ii) aware of attempted or actual manipulation of the foreign exchange market , or (iii) aware of the potential for such manipulation or (iv) colluded with market participants in relation to any such manipulation or aware of any such collusion between participants;
(b) either (i) involved in the sharing of confidential client information or (ii) aware of the sharing of such information between participants for the purposes of transacting business in the foreign exchange market; or
(c) involved in, or aware of, any other unlawful or improper behaviour or practices in the foreign exchange market.

The Oversight Committee has appointed external legal counsel, Travers Smith LLP, to prepare a report.