LONDON, Nov 12 (Reuters) - The Bank of England said aninvestigation commissioned by its oversight committee had foundno evidence that any BoE official had been involved in unlawfulor improper behaviour in relation to a foreign exchange tradingscandal.
The Bank said the report also found that none of itsofficials knew of improper behaviour by foreign exchange tradersat banks based on shared confidential information, includingaggregated information about client orders.
Earlier on Wednesday, regulators in Britain and the UnitedStates announced fines for five major banks for their role inthe case.
The Bank of England said one of its officials was aware thatbank traders were sharing information about client orders forthe purpose of "matching" which was not necessarily improper butcould increase the potential for improper conduct.
Despite being uncomfortable with the practice, the officialdid not escalate the matter which "constituted an error injudgment that deserved criticism, but such criticism should belimited in that the individual was not acting in bad faith" andthe official was not aware of specific instances of suchbehaviour, the BoE said.
Separately, British finance minister George Osborne saidBritain was taking "tough action to clean up corruption by a fewso that we have a financial system that works for everyone" andthe country's regulatory response to the financial crisis meant"the world can have confidence in the integrity of Britain'sfinancial markets." (Writing by William Schomberg; Editing by Kim Coghill)