FX Fixing Scandal: Mark Carney and BoE Face Treasury Committee Grilling

Mark Carney faces a grilling by MPs on the unfolding forex fixing scandal after a Bank of England official was suspended.

The BoE governor, alongside his monetary policy committee (MPC) colleagues, is scheduled to appear in front of parliament's Treasury Select Committee on 11 March to discuss the central bank's most recent inflation report.

But Andrew Tyrie, chairman of the TSC, has indicated that questions around the forex market manipulation scandal will be put to the BoE at the hearing. He has criticised the pace of the BoE's reaction to concern over its role in the currency markets.

"There is a strong case that the non-executives in the Bank should have taken the initiative on this from the moment the need for external assistance was considered," Tyrie told The Telegraph.

"That was last October, possibly earlier. Yet this issue does not appear to have been raised with Court or the Oversight Committee – the nearest the Bank has to a board – until December."

The BoE has been attacked for allegedly condoning the way currency traders at different banks shared information with each other at meetings with the senior bankers.

Communications between traders are a part of several regulatory probes across the world into suspected currency market manipulation. The BoE denied ever condoning activity that was against the rules.

The BoE has suspended one official and revealed it stopped meeting a group of top London currency dealers in February 2013 amid an internal review.

"The BoE does not condone any form of market manipulation in any context whatsoever," said the central bank.

"The Bank has today reiterated its guidance to staff regarding management of records and escalation of important information."

It added that the internal review has not found any evidence that BoE staff colluded in any such manipulation or shared confidential client information.

The global currency market is worth $5tn (£3.1tn, €3.7tn) in daily trading.