ZURICH--Switzerland's competition authority said Monday it has
opened an investigation into possible manipulation of foreign
currency rates by big banks, including UBS AG (UBS), Credit Suisse
Group AG (CS) and Julius Baer Group AG (BAER.VX).
Some of the biggest banks in the world, including Deutsche Bank
AG (DB) and Citigroup Inc. (C), have suspended traders since the
probe into collusion on market setting of currency rates began last
April. Those two banks alone account for just under one-third of
all currency trading.
The probe by Switzerland's Competition Commission, known by the
German-language acronym Weko, comes after the country's financial
markets regulator said in October it was conducting probes of
"several Swiss financial institutions' in regard to possible
manipulation of exchange rates. Weko opened a preliminary
investigation in September last year.
The Weko probe also includes Zuercher Kantonalbank (ZKB.YY),
JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM), Citigroup, Barclays PLC (BC) and
Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC (RBS), the commission said in a
statement.
Authorities in the U.S., U.K. and other countries are also
examining whether traders have manipulated the foreign exchange
market, where more than $5 trillion in currencies change hands each
day.
Write to Neil MacLucas at neil.maclucas@wsj.com
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