The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) has confirmed that it didn’t find any evidence of collusion among banks in the manipulation of the foreign exchange market between 2008 and 2013.
HKMA said that it has identified two failed attempts by Hong Kong-based traders at Standard Chartered and Deutsche Bank to manipulate the benchmark.
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AS part of the probe, HKMA checked 40 million internal and external communication records, including chat messages of the bank staff involved in FX benchmark fixings or trading operations.
The HKMA said it required the banks to take appropriate action against the traders and review their controls and has referred the cases to the relevant overseas authorities.
Additionally, HKMA required the banks to employ an independent external reviewer to identify the cause of the incident concerned and implement the recommendations made by the reviewer with the regulator.
A spokesperson of the HKMA said: "While no rigging of Hong Kong FX benchmark fixings was found in the investigation, we remind banks to be vigilant to ensure the integrity of the FX market in Hong Kong which is of utmost importance to Hong Kong as an IFC.
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By GlobalData"In addition, the HKMA expects all banks to maintain adequate systems of control to ensure that their staffs engaged in FX trading activities observe the TMA’s Code of Conduct and Practice. The HKMA will continue to closely monitor the outcomes of the required actions to ensure that the intended results are achieved," he added.
