(New throughout, adds BP comment)
Dec 30 (Reuters) - BP reviewed the activities of itsin-house foreign exchange traders, the British oil and gas groupsaid on Tuesday, after the Financial Times reported that BP wasinvestigating whether its traders were involved in rigging thecurrency market.
The newspaper's report cited a person familiar with thematter as saying BP's internal review of its currency tradingoperations in London was "ongoing."
The FT reported that the investigation, which is not beingcarried out by any financial regulator, was prompted after aBloomberg report cited undated messages sent to BP's employeesby a network of foreign-exchange traders at four major banksabout planned currency trades "sometimes hours before theyhappened." (http://on.ft.com/1wyUHUA)
Asked to comment on the FT report, BP issued an emailedstatement that said: "Following regulatory market (not into BP)investigations regarding the FX markets, we conducted a reviewinto our activities in this area. BP's FX desk has relationships(as a customer) with 26 relationship banks, including JP Morgan,Citibank and Barclays."
Last month, financial regulators in the United States, theU.K. and Switzerland fined six major banks a total of $4.3billion for failing to stop traders from trying to manipulatethe foreign exchange market. The fines followed a year-longglobal investigation.
The European Commission also has been investigatingallegations that BP manipulated oil and biofuel prices. (Reporting by Ankush Sharma in Bengaluru; Editing by DavidGregorio)