FX Fixing Scandal: Bank of England Appoints Anthony Grabiner to Lead Probe

The Bank of England has revealed that its oversight committee has appointed Anthony Grabiner to lead the investigation into allegations that BoE officials condoned or were informed of currency market manipulation or were privy to the sharing of confidential client information.

Britain's central bank said in a statement that its oversight committee employed the Labour peer to lead the probe, only a day after BoE officials were grilled by parliament over its alleged role in the FX rigging scandal.

BoE members have debunked claims the central bank knew about traders seeking to rig key foreign exchange rates for the past eight years.

Speaking at a Treasury Select Committee hearing, BoE's Paul Fisher said that there is "no evidence" of FX fixing despite allegations that the central bank new about allegations for years.

Fisher added that he has not even personally heard of currency rigging allegations until 2013 and would have told the regulator about it, if he had.

BoE governor Mark Carney added that "we first became aware ... a member of the bank first became aware of allegations related to (issues) we were discussing on the 16th of October, I was informed then, I informed the chair of court that day, we convened governors, we decided to launch an investigation within 48 hours we retained external council and they had begun a very thorough, systematic, relentless investigation."

"Best practice would appear, to discharge this type of rule, would be to have external expertise, not just legal expertise but an external person to run these types of reviews, and also to run the reviews of the bank's policy functions."

He added also reiterated that "this has taken a comprehensive, consistent, relentless approach to evidence, both obvious and not obvious."

Previously, IBTimes UK exclusively revealed that a whistleblower alerted regulators in the US, UK and Switzerland in 2011 about some of the world's largest trading companies and banks manipulating benchmark sterling, US dollar and Swiss franc currency rates.

However, it was not until 2013 that these authorities started investigating the allegations of market rigging.