According to sources cited by Bloomberg, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is handling the matter of foreign Exchange market rigging with urgency, as prosecutors are preparing charges against some major financial companies.
The report outlines that charges against institutions will be brought forward before the turn of the year, while allegations against individuals are more likely to be put into motion sometime in 2015.
People familiar with the intentions of the U.S. Justice Department are looking at 'guilty please' coming from a number of banks, including one based in the U.S. The DOJ has neither confirmed nor denied the claims brought forward by Bloomberg.
The FX fixings manipulation investigation, launched by global regulatory bodies more than a year ago, is not the first case where evidence of industry malpractices has been found. After LIBOR manipulation surfaced back in 2012, this year has been haunted by other major financial institutions wrongdoings.
Merely a month ago the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission passed over evidence to the DOJ about the alleged fixing of the ISDAfix benchmark (ISDAfix (International Swaps and Derivatives Association fix), which is a an interest rate benchmark used to determine annual swap rates for swap transactions.
UK’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) was the latest body to join the FX fixing manipulation investigations after the Financial Conduct Authority‘s (FCA) investigation in the UK, and the criminal proceeding by the U.S. DOJ which was filed this summer.
U.S. authorities allegedly turned multiple bank employees into secret informants about the FX fixing manipulation practices.
