Bank of England says FX investigation finds no BoE wrong-doing

[LONDON] The Bank of England said an investigation commissioned by its oversight committee had found no evidence that any BoE official had been involved in unlawful or improper behaviour in relation to a foreign exchange trading scandal.

The Bank said the report also found that none of its officials knew of improper behaviour by foreign exchange traders at banks based on shared confidential information, including aggregated information about client orders.

Earlier on Wednesday, regulators in Britain and the United States announced fines for five major banks for their role in the case.

The Bank of England said one of its officials was aware that bank traders were sharing information about client orders for the purpose of "matching" which was not necessarily improper but could increase the potential for improper conduct.

Despite being uncomfortable with the practice, the official did not escalate the matter which "constituted an error in judgment that deserved criticism, but such criticism should be limited in that the individual was not acting in bad faith" and the official was not aware of specific instances of such behaviour, the BoE said.

Separately, British finance minister George Osborne said Britain was taking "tough action to clean up corruption by a few so that we have a financial system that works for everyone" and the country's regulatory response to the financial crisis meant"the world can have confidence in the integrity of Britain's financial markets."

REUTERS