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By Jamie McGeever
LONDON, March 31 (Reuters) - Switzerland's competitioncommission WEKO said on Monday it had formally opened aninvestigation into eight Swiss, U.S. and British banks overpotential collusion to manipulate foreign exchange rates.
The unfolding scandal has so far seen almost 30 tradersplaced on leave, suspended or fired by some of the world'sbiggest banks.
Below is a timeline on the scandal that has engulfed thelargely unregulated $5.3 trillion-a-day foreign exchange market,the world's biggest financial market and which is now subject toa global investigation.
July 2006: Minutes of a meeting of the Bank of England's FXJoint Standing Committee's chief dealers sub-group say thegroup, chaired by BoE chief dealer Martin Mallett, discussed"evidence of attempts to move the market around popular fixingtimes by players that had no particular interest in that fix. Itwas noted that 'fixing business' generally was becomingincreasingly fraught due to this behaviour."
Spring 2008: The Federal Reserve Bank of New York makesinquiries into concerns surrounding benchmark Libor interestrates, sharing its analysis and suggestions for reforms with"the relevant authorities in the UK".
May 2008: Minutes of a meeting of the BoE's FX JointStanding Committee's chief dealers sub-group say there was"considerable discussion" on the benchmark "fixings" again.
July 2008: A meeting of the BoE's FX Joint StandingCommittee's chief dealers sub-group discusses the suggestion"that using a snapshot of the market may be problematic, as itcould be subject to manipulation", BoE minutes say.
April 2012: As the Libor scandal reaches its zenith, theregular chief FX dealers' meeting included a "brief discussionon extra levels of compliance that many bank trading desks weresubject to when managing client risks around the main set piecebenchmark fixings", BoE minutes say.
June 2013: Bloomberg News reports dealers used electronicchatrooms to share client order information to manipulatebenchmark exchange rates at the 4:00 p.m. London "fixing".
July 2013: A scheduled chief dealers' meeting for July 4never takes place.
September 2013: Swiss bank UBS provides the U.S.Department of Justice with information on FX allegations in thehope of gaining antitrust immunity if charged with wrongdoing.
October 2013: The investigation goes global. The DOJ,Britain's Financial Conduct Authority and Bank of England, andSwitzerland's market regulator all open probes. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority says it is cooperating.
December 2013: Several banks, including JP Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank bantraders from multi-dealer electronic chatrooms.
January 2014: U.S. regulators visit Citi's main offices inLondon. Citi fires chief dealer Rohan Ramchandani, a member ofthe BoE-chaired chief dealers' sub-group and the first trader inthe unfolding scandal to be sacked.
Feb. 4, 2014: Martin Wheatley, chief executive the FCA,Britain's market regulator, says the FX allegations are "everybit as bad" as those in Libor. He also says the FCA'sinvestigation will probably run into next year.
Feb. 5, 2014: New York's banking regulator opens itsinvestigation.
Feb. 14, 2014: The Financial Stability Board, the world'stop financial regulator which coordinates policy for the G20,says it will review FX fixings.
March 5, 2014: The Bank of England suspends an employee aspart of its internal investigation.
March 11, 2014: The Bank of England announces a shake-up ofthe way it works with banks and financial markets, creating anew position of deputy governor responsible for banking andmarkets.
March 31, 2014: Swiss competition commission WEKO formallyopens investigation into eight Swiss, British and U.S. banksincluding Citi, RBS, JP Morgan, UBS and Credit Suisse AG over potential collusion to manipulate FX rates.
Credit Suisse said it was "astonished", while UBS, JPMorgan, RBS and Citi declined to comment. (Editing by Alison Williams)
