* DoJ investigating precious metals ops at 10 banks -WSJ
* Precious metals lawsuits pending in U.S. courts (Adds background, Barclays results)
By Jan Harvey
LONDON, March 3 (Reuters) - Barclays has been providinginformation to an investigation into precious metals by the U.S.Department of Justice (DoJ), the bank said in its 2014 annualreport on Tuesday, a week after a similar statement by HSBC.
The DoJ and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission areinvestigating at least 10 banks for possible rigging of preciousmetals markets, the Wall Street Journal reported last week,citing people close to the inquiries.
Tuesday's acknowledgment of its involvement in theinvestigation comes after HSBC said in its annualreport on Feb. 23 that the DoJ had issued a request to HSBCHoldings in November seeking documents related to a criminalantitrust investigation it was conducting.
The latest investigation is a further distraction for a bankbattling to cut costs and boost profit even as it prepares tosettle allegations that its traders manipulated foreign exchangemarkets. Taking into account charges, provisions andrestructuring costs, the bank suffered a 21 percent drop infull-year net profit, it said on Tuesday.
Regulatory scrutiny of precious metals trading andbenchmarking has increased since the Libor rigging scandalexposed widespread manipulation of interest rates in the foreignexchange market.
Swiss regulator FINMA said in November that it found a clearattempt to manipulate precious metals benchmarks during itsinvestigation of precious metals and foreign exchange trading atUBS.
"The behaviour patterns in precious metals were somewhatsimilar to the behaviour patterns in foreign exchange," FINMAdirector Mark Branson said in a conference call withjournalists.
Germany's Bafin has been looking into how precious metalsbenchmarks are set, while Britain's Financial Conduct Authoritysaid it was broadly looking at gold as part of an investigationinto commodity benchmarks.
Meanwhile, multiple lawsuits have been filed in U.S. courts,alleging a conspiracy to manipulate precious metals prices.
The banks involved in producing global gold, silver,platinum and palladium benchmarks, known as the fixes, said lastyear they would no longer administer the standards.
A new silver benchmark is now administered by CME Group and Thomson Reuters, while the London MetalExchange produces platinum and palladium benchmarks. TheIntercontinental Exchange (ICE) will produce a new goldbenchmark from March 20. (Editing by David Goodman)
Barclays (BARC)
HSBC Holdings (HSBA)
