(Corrects paragraph two to show Deutsche Bank has implemented apolicy requiring pre-approval for personal forex trades)
Feb 18 (Reuters) - Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) andDeutsche Bank are reviewing rules on currency dealerstrading with their own money, sources said on Tuesday, asregulators investigate possible price fixing in foreign exchangemarkets.
Deutsche Bank, a major player in the $5.3 trillion a daymarket, now requires staff to seek approval for personal foreignexchange trades before conducting them, a source familiar withthe matter told Reuters.
The bank already asked employees to get approval for stockpurchases from senior managers before doing deals.
RBS is assessing processes and procedures in its foreignexchange operations, including personal accounts, another sourcesaid.
The state-backed bank has already cut some of its foreignexchange fixing services following an internalreview.
Swiss bank UBS was also looking at its policies onprivate trades, the Financial Times reported, citing peoplefamiliar with the plans.
UBS launched an internal review of its forex business whenirregularities in the currency markets first emerged last year,according to its fourth quarter earnings report.
UBS and RBS declined to comment.
Deutsche Bank said it has long-existing policies that forbidemployees from using confidential client information to benefittheir personal dealings. Those policies are constantly reviewed,it said.
Regulators are looking at whether traders at some of theworld's biggest banks with advance knowledge of customer orderstried to manipulate benchmark foreign-exchange rates used to setthe value of trillions of dollars of investments.
Since the investigations started last year, 20 traders havebeen fired, suspended or put on leave and banks are consideringways to clean up trading floors, including banning chat rooms.
No charges of any kind have yet been brought.
The Financial Times said in November that the UK's FinancialConduct Authority was investigating the use of privateaccounts by forex traders.
In Switzerland, regulator FINMA is trying to gauge whetherforex traders had been manipulating the euro-Swiss franc andU.S. dollar-Swiss franc fixes through their personal accountsand for personal gain, according to currency traders.
Germany's financial watchdog Bafin is also investigating theuse of the private accounts, a third source said.
FINMA declined to comment as the investigation is ongoing.Bafin had no comment.
Personal account or "PA" trades are usually declared to thebank by employees and are recorded via automatic emails.
Foreign exchange benchmarks are scheduled to be reviewed bythe Financial Stability Board, which coordinates regulation forthe Group of 20 (G20) leading economies.
Last year, banks including Barclays and UBS werefined $6 billion for rigging Libor benchmark interest rates.Some of the banks are cooperating with regulators in the forexprobe.
Britain's fraud agency started criminal proceedings againstthree former bankers at Barclays on Monday for the allegedmanipulation of Libor rates. (Reporting by Aashika Jain in Bangalore and Jamie McGeever,Matt Scuffham and Clare Hutchison in London; Editing by LouiseIreland and David Evans)