By Jamie McGeever
LONDON, Feb 5 (Reuters) - The global head of foreignexchange at Citigroup, the world's second largest currencytrader, is leaving the bank, according to an internal bank memoseen by Reuters on Wednesday.
London-based Anil Prasad's departure, however, is notrelated to the global investigation into allegations of currencymarket manipulation, a source familiar with the matter said.
"Anil's decision is his own and entirely unrelated to theon-going FX investigations," the source said.
Citi sees 14.9 percent of the average $5.3 trillion thatflows through the world currency markets every day, according tothe last annual poll by Euromoney, just behind market leaderDeutsche Bank AG which sees 15.2 percent.
Prasad joined Citi in India in 1986 and relocated to NewYork two years later. In 1996, he moved to London but left thebank the following year to join Natwest Capital Markets.
He returned to Citi in 2000, and was appointed Global Headof Foreign Exchange & Local Markets in February 2007. Hissuccessor will be announced in the coming weeks.
Prasad's departure comes as the FX probe appears to begathering steam.
Last month, Citi fired its London-based head of Europeanspot foreign exchange trading, Rohan Ramchandani, following aprolonged period on leave.
On Tuesday Deutsche Bank fired three New York-based currencytraders, and Britain's Lloyds Banking Group suspendedone of its FX traders in London after an internal investigationinto allegations of FX manipulation, sources said.
Also on Tuesday, the head of Britain's top regulator saidthe allegations of FX manipulation were "every bit as bad" asthose surrounding the Libor interest rate scandal.
"We are still in the investigation phase ... The allegationsare every bit as bad as they have been with Libor," MartinWheatley, chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority,told UK lawmakers.
"I would be surprised if we got to conclusions within thisyear. I hope that we will next year," he said.
Banks including Barclays and UBS havebeen fined $6 billion for rigging Libor and other benchmarkinterest rates, and some of the same banks are cooperating withregulators in the forex probe.