By Jamie McGeever
March 31 (Reuters) - Deutsche Bank AG, theworld's largest currency trader, has placed on leave a directorof institutional foreign exchange sales as part of an internalinvestigation into potential exchange rate manipulation, asource familiar with the matter said on Monday.
Kai Lew, based in London and responsible for central bank FXbusiness at the German lender, was placed on leave earlier thismonth, the source said.
She is the first woman among some 30 currency traders atseveral big banks to be placed on leave, suspended or fired as aresult of the ongoing global probe into alleged wrongdoing inthe $5.3 trillion-a-day market, the world's largest.
There is no evidence of wrongdoing.
A spokeswoman for Deutsche declined to comment, referringReuters to a previous statement from the bank that read:"Deutsche Bank has received requests for information fromregulatory authorities that are investigating trading in theforeign exchange market. The bank is cooperating with thoseinvestigations, and will take disciplinary action with regardsto individuals if merited."
Lew could not be immediately reached for comment.
Lew joined Deutsche in February 2006 from Goldman Sachs, where she had been for six years in London, Hong Kongand Singapore, according to her LinkedIn page.
This news comes on the same day Swiss and British regulatorsstepped up their scrutiny of alleged manipulation of FX markets.
Switzerland's competition commission WEKO said it formallyopened an investigation into several Swiss, British and U.S.banks including JP Morgan, Barclays and Citi.
The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), meanwhile, said itwill assess if banks have cut the risk of traders manipulatingbenchmark rates in the coming year, to see if lessons have beenlearned from the scandal over benchmark rate rigging.
Last week Swiss bank UBS AG, the world's fourthlargest FX bank, suspended up to six currency traders in theUnited States, Zurich and Singapore.
Deutsche Bank and UBS together see around a quarter of the$5.3 trillion that flows through the global market on an averageday, according to the latest Euromoney poll. (Reporting by Jamie McGeever; Editing by Toby Chopra)