You are here
Bank of England to launch inquiry over forex fixing claims
By James Quinn
The Telegraph, London
Saturday, March 8, 2014
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/bank-of-england/10685530/Bank-of-Engl...
The Bank of England is to launch an independent inquiry into allegations it allowed manipulation of the foreign exchange market.
The Telegraph can reveal that the Bank's oversight committee is set to appoint an external heavyweight to run an independent assessment of the Bank's actions both in relation to the allegations made and how it has handled those allegations.
The heavyweight figure could be a judge, an academic or a City executive. He or she would need to be far enough removed from the Bank to ensure the inquiry is seen as independent.
The Bank's committee appointed the law firm, Travers Smith, last week to prepare a formal report which will be made public.
... Dispatch continues below ...
Buy metals at GoldMoney and enjoy international storage
GoldMoney was established in 2001 by James and Geoff Turk and is safeguarding more than $1.7 billion in metals and currencies. Buy gold, silver, platinum, and palladium from GoldMoney over the Internet and store them in vaults in Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom, taking advantage of GoldMoney's low storage rates, among the most competitive in the industry. GoldMoney also offers delivery of 100-gram and 1-kilogram gold bars and 1-kilogram silver bars. To learn more, please visit:
http://www.goldmoney.com/?gmrefcode=gata
Sources have now indicated that Travers Smith is on a fact-finding exercise, rather than an inquiry.
The sources went on to explain that, to eradicate any suspicion of wrongdoing, a "serious review of the data" was needed to "bring recommendations back to the oversight committee."
The move has yet to be given the go-ahead by the eight-man committee, which is chaired by Sir David Lees.
However, it is thought to have been discussed by a number of the committee’s members, and is seen as the next step in the Bank’s attempts to prove it has not condoned market fixing in the $5 trillion (£3 trillion) foreign exchange (forex) market.
The need for an independent inquiry is likely to be raised when Mark Carney, the Governor of the Bank, and Paul Fisher, the executive director of markets, appear before the Treasury Select Committee on Tuesday.
Andrew Tyrie, the committee's chairman, is expected to ask the two men for a detailed account of their actions and why it has taken since October -- when Bloomberg News first alerted the Bank to initial allegations regarding two of its officials -- for the organisation to take action.
Last Wednesday, alongside the appointment of Travers Smith, the Bank suspended one member of staff and emphasised that it had told all remaining staff about the rules regarding "management of records and escalation of important information."
At the same time it published minutes of its foreign exchange joint standing committee (chief dealers’ sub-group) from 2005 until last year when the group was closed.
The minutes, which reveal in detail what was discussed during quarterly meetings between Bank staff and commercial bank foreign exchange dealers, placed the spotlight on Martin Mallett.
Mr Mallett, the Bank’s chief dealer, chaired the group, which for the first few years of its inception held meetings in some of the City’s best restaurants, including The Don, Smiths of Smithfield and Imperial City.
Minutes show that fixing in the forex market was first discussed at a meeting in July 2006, when "there was evidence of attempts to move the market around popular fixing times by players that had no particular interest in that fix."
The Bank has examined 15,000 emails, 21,000 chat room records and has looked at allegations that Bank officials condoned dealers from different banks discussing clients position in chat rooms.
It also looked at 40 hours of telephone calls. The growing forex inquiry has seen 10 banks across three continents suspend or fire staff. The Financial Conduct Authority is one a number of national regulators investigating the situation.
A Bank of England spokesman pointed to its previously released statement, which says that it has found no evidence to date that staff colluded in any way in manipulating the foreign exchange market or in sharing confidential client information, and that it does not condone any form of market manipulation.
* * *
Join GATA here:
Mines and Money Hong Kong
Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre
Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China
Monday-Friday, March 24-28, 2014
http://www.minesandmoney.com/hongkong/
Canadian Investor Conference 2014
Vancouver Convention Centre West
1055 Canada Place, Vancouver, British Columbia
Sunday and Monday, June 1 and 2, 2014
http://cambridgehouse.com/event/25/canadian-investor-conference-2014-inc...
* * *
Support GATA by purchasing DVDs of our London conference in August 2011 or our Dawson City conference in August 2006:
http://www.goldrush21.com/order.html
Or by purchasing a colorful GATA T-shirt:
Or a colorful poster of GATA's full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal on January 31, 2009:
http://gata.org/node/wallstreetjournal
Help keep GATA going
GATA is a civil rights and educational organization based in the United States and tax-exempt under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Its e-mail dispatches are free, and you can subscribe at:
To contribute to GATA, please visit:
How to profit with silver --
and which stocks to buy now
Future Money Trends is offering a special 16-page silver report with profiles of nine companies and technical analysis of their stock performance. Six of the companies have market capitalizations of less than $800 million and one company has a market cap of only $30 million. The most exciting of these companies will begin production in a few weeks and has a market cap of just $150 million.
Half of all proceeds from the sale of this report will be donated to the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee to support its efforts exposing manipulation and fraud in the gold and silver markets.
To learn about this report, please visit:
http://www.futuremoneytrends.com/index.php?option=com_content&id=376&tmp...
