A high-ranking EU official has said that the European Commission is currently investigating whether traders conspired to manipulate the forex market; though the findings of this investigation or those of another related to Swiss benchmark rates won’t be available for several weeks.
Joaquin Almunia, EU executive’s competition commissioner was quoted last December as saying that he was probing whether interest rate benchmarks related to the forex market and the Swiss franc were manipulated. When contacted by Reuters today, he said that the investigation is still ongoing and ruled out any possibility of an immediate conclusion.
“There is a lot of information and we are digging into the information and analysing it and discussing it,†Almunia about the foreign exchange market. When asked about a conclusion of the two cases, he added: “This week or next week or another week, you can be quiet as we will not launch any kind of new initiatives on these two issues.â€
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Most traders have been keenly monitoring Almunia’s newest probe after he imposed fines worth 1.7 billion euros ($2.32 billion) on six major banks in December over collusion to fix Euribor and Libor interest rate benchmarks.
Almunia, who is expected to leave office in November, refused to reveal whether he will let his successor to make the decision on the two cases, saying “it depends on if work is ready.â€
Authorities in Europe, USA, Asia, Australia and New Zealand are investigating whether forex dealers at major banks conspired to rig foreign exchange markets. Recently, Germany’s financial regulator said it had uncovered sufficient evidence that shows that there was manipulation of the reference forex rates. To register for a free 2-week subscription to ForexMinute Premium Plan, visit www.forexminute.com/newsletter.
To contact the reporter of this story; Yashu Gola at yashu@forexminute.com
