By Steve Slater
LONDON, Nov 11 (Reuters) - British and U.S. regulators arepoised to levy hefty fines on leading banks in a landmarksettlement after a year-long global investigation intoallegations of collusion and manipulation in the foreignexchange market.
However, at least one of the six banks set to be named earlyon Wednesday morning by Britain's Financial Conduct Authority(FCA) remained in 11th-hour negotiations about details of thedeal, two sources close to the matter said.
The banks at the centre of the UK investigation - UBS, Barclays , Royal Bank of Scotland,Citigroup, JPMorgan and HSBC - will alsoonly sign off on an expected combined penalty of 1.5 billionpounds ($2.4 billion) late on Tuesday, sources said.
It would be the first settlement over allegations ofmisconduct in the $5.3 trillion-a-day foreign exchange market.Around 35 traders have been suspended or fired by their banksafter internal investigations, but no individual or institutionhas so far been charged with any wrongdoing.
However, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday thatSwiss financial regulator FINMA had sent warning letters toaround 10 past and present UBS employees about potentialenforcement action for alleged misconduct in the forex market,according to sources familiar with the matter.
A spokesman for FINMA declined to comment. The FCA alsodeclined comment.
As London accounts for around 40 percent of the market -double the size of nearest rival New York - the FCA has beenkeen to take a leading role in the global forex inquiry. Banks,meanwhile, have been keen to draw a line under the latestscandal weighing on their shares and tarnishing theirreputations.
However, the Washington-based Commodity Futures TradingCommission (CFTC) and FINMA are also expected to be among thoseclose to concluding investigations. Any U.S. settlement isexpected to name at least one other bank.
Bank of America said last week it was in "advanceddiscussions" with U.S. bank regulators over foreign exchangematters.
(1 US dollar = 0.6299 British pound) (Additional reporting by Josh Franklin in Zurich; Writing byKirstin Ridley; Editing by David Holmes)