Bank of England says fraud office investigating liquidity auctions
LONDON (Reuters) - British fraud investigators are looking into possible fraud related to liquidity auctions held by the Bank of England during the financial crisis in 2007 and 2008.
The BoE, which was rocked by a scandal over the manipulation of foreign exchange markets last year, said it had referred information relating to the auctions to Britain's Serious Fraud Office in November after an inquiry commissioned by the Bank.
"Given the SFO investigation is ongoing, it is not appropriate for the Bank to provide any additional comment on the matter at this time,” the BoE said in a statement.
The Financial Times reported in November that the BoE was investigating whether staff knew or even aided possible manipulation of the auctions it held at the onset of the financial crisis to pump liquidity into the banking system.
The SFO confirmed it was looking into the material provided by the BoE.
Last week, the BoE said it had made a series of changes to how it gathered information from markets and to improve record-keeping and provide more training for staff, after an inquiry found its chief foreign exchange dealer failed to escalate his concerns about possible currency market-rigging.
It also said that in recent months the BoE had passed on more than 40 cases of possible misconduct for investigation by Britain's Financial Conduct Authority, the main regulator of financial markets.
A lawmaker who chairs a committee in parliament that oversees the work of the BoE welcomed the decision to pass to the SFO the information turned up by the Bank's inquiry into the liquidity auctions.
"We must now await the outcome of the SFO’s work. The sooner their findings are published the better,” Andrew Tyrie, chairman of the Treasury Committee said in a statement.
(Writing by William Schomberg; Editing by Mark Heinrich, Larry King)
