Investigators turn bankers into informants in forex probe - WSJ

Sept 15 (Reuters) - U.S. investigators have turned severalbank employees into informants to gather evidence against someof their colleagues in the probe of possible manipulation ofcurrency markets, the Wall Street Journal reported, citingpeople familiar with the matter.

Britain's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and U.S.regulators are investigating allegations that dealers at majorbanks colluded and manipulated key reference rates in the $5.3trillion-a-day foreign currency market, the world's biggest andleast regulated.

Investigators from the U.S. Justice Department and FederalBureau of Investigation (FBI) are preparing to seek criminalcharges against individual traders as early as next month, theJournal reported. (http://on.wsj.com/1qPzF5W)

The Journal report said it isn't clear which banks hadsecret informants cooperating with the government investigation.

Ethical standards in the foreign exchange market have beenput under a harsh spotlight since investigators in the UnitedStates, Europe and Asia started examining whether small groupsof traders colluded to rig prices by sharing information abouttheir clients' orders.

The global inquiry has not yet concluded but the review hasshaken the industry, with dozens of top dealers put on leave orfired and banks under pressure to sharpen up oversight of theirtraders.

The FBI and U.S. Justice Department were not immediatelyavailable for comment outside regular U.S. business hours. (Reporting by Arnab Sen in Bangalore; Editing by GopakumarWarrier)