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By Jamie McGeever
LONDON, June 13 (Reuters) - Britain's finance ministerGeorge Osborne this week rejected European Union plans tooutlaw currency market manipulation and instead set out his ownproposals to make rigging exchange rates a criminal offence.
A panel led by the Bank of England and including theTreasury and Financial Conduct Authority will recommend newcriminal sanctions which meet the needs of London, where much ofthe largely unregulated FX market takes place.
Osborne's announcement comes as regulators around the worldinvestigate allegations of collusion and price-manipulation inthe $5-trillion-a-day market, by far the world's largest.
Since the allegations first surfaced last year, some 40traders have been placed on leave, suspended or fired by some ofthe world's biggest banks.
No individual or bank has been accused of wrongdoing and noevidence of wrongdoing has been found. All the banks involvedare cooperating with the regulators.
Below is a timeline on the scandal engulfing the FX market.
July 2006: Minutes of a meeting of the BoE's FX JointStanding Committee's chief dealer sub-group say the group,chaired by BoE chief dealer Martin Mallett, discussed "evidenceof attempts to move the market around popular fixing times byplayers that had no particular interest in that fix. It wasnoted that 'fixing business' generally was becoming increasinglyfraught due to this behaviour".
Spring 2008: The Federal Reserve Bank of New York makesenquiries 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 4 Julynever takes place.
Sept. 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.
Oct 2013: The investigation goes global. The DOJ, Britain'sFinancial Conduct Authority and Bank of England andSwitzerland's market regulator all open probes. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority says it is cooperating.
Dec 2013: Several banks, including JP Morgan Chase,Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank ban tradersfrom multi-dealer electronic chatrooms.
Jan 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's topfinancial regulator which coordinates policy for the G20, saysit 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, UK and U.S. banksincluding Citi, RBS, JP Morgan, UBS and Credit Suisse AG over potential collusion to manipulate foreignexchange rates.
June 12, 2014: UK finance minister George Osborne rejects EUplans to outlaw FX market manipulation and instead sets out hisown rules - "as strong or stronger than those of the EU" - tomake rigging exchange rates a criminal offence. (Reporting by Jamie McGeever; Editing by Gareth Jones)
