UBS
FX Fixing Scandal: UBS Suspends 4 Traders

UBS has suspended four foreign exchange traders amid a raft of global investigations into currency market manipulation.

According to a Bloomberg report, three unnamed Singapore and Switzerland based traders were sent home temporarily, as well as emerging markets trader Onur Sert from New York.

The UBS traders are among the estimated 30 traders that have been put on leave, suspended or fired amid the FX fixing investigations that were launched over the past year.

UBS was not immediately available for comment.

Related

On 27 March, Matt Gardiner, one of Standard Chartered's senior currency dealers allegedly resigned, after being put on leave in October 2013, amid a number of foreign exchange fixing investigations.

Although Standard Chartered declined to confirm his departure to IBTimes UK, several media reports say that he is no longer at the bank.

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.

The FX Market

The daily $5tn (£3.1tn, €3.7tn) currency market is the largest in the financial system and is pegged to the value of funds, derivatives and financial products.

Morningstar estimates that $3.6tn in funds, including pension and savings accounts, track global indexes.

FX rates are calculated are compiled by using data from a variety of submitted provisions on a number of platforms, such as Thomson Reuters.

It is then calculated by WM, a unit of State Street, to form WM/Thomson Reuters at 1600 GMT daily.