HONG KONG--Hong Kong's de facto central bank on Friday said it
found no evidence of collusion among banks in rigging benchmarks in
the $5.3-trillion-a-day foreign-exchange market.
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority, which carried out the probe as
part of a global investigation, said it sought to determine whether
banks in Hong Kong manipulated foreign exchange benchmark fixings,
engaged in collusion or other inappropriate activities between 2008
and 2013.
While it found no evidence of benchmark rigging or collusion by
banks, the HKMA did point to two failed attempts by Hong Kong-based
traders to manipulate the benchmark.
One case of a "suspected attempt to influence an Asian currency
benchmark fixing" by a Hong Kong-based trader at Standard Chartered
Bank was found, the HKMA said, but there wasn't enough evidence to
prove whether the trader actually "effected trades."
In another case, a Hong Kong-based trader at Deutsche Bank made
a failed attempt to influence the U.S. dollar--Hong Kong dollar
spot rate in March 2009 at the request of an overseas colleague,
the HKMA said.
The HKMA's investigation was related to a global foreign
exchange investigation that drew in regulators from the U.K., the
U.S. and Switzerland, among others. Last month, regulators
announced a series of settlements totaling nearly $4 billion with
seven banks for alleged manipulation of the foreign exchange
market.
The global investigation looked into whether traders from
different banks were sharing information about client orders,
colluding on a sequence for placing their own trades to their
advantage and other improprieties.
The HKMA's probe covered 10 banks including Bank of America,
Barclays Bank, BNP Paribas, Citibank, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, J.P.
Morgan Chase Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland, Standard Chartered Bank,
and UBS.
The HKMA's foreign exchange investigation follows its yearlong
investigation into banks rigging a local benchmark interest rate
between 2005 and 2012. That investigation found evidence of
misconduct by UBS AG and no evidence of collusion between banks
including HSBC, Deutsche Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland, Crédit
Agricole, Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi, Citibank and Société Générale
SA, people with knowledge of the matter said early this year, in
March.
Enda Curran contributed to this article.
Write to Anjani Trivedi at anjani.trivedi@wsj.com
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