Barclays cooperating with foreign exchange investigation

Published: 31 Oct at 9 AM Tags:

Barclays Bank has said it will cooperate with regulators in the investigation into currency trading manipulation.

The bank, which is suffering from an investment banking slump, is looking into its foreign exchange trading activities over the past few years. Several other banks are also under scrutiny concerning possible rigging of the forex market.

Royal Bank of Scotland, along with Deutsche Bank and UBS, is currently cooperating with the authorities. Antony Jenkins, who became chief executive of Barclays just over a year ago, is tackling a number of scandals involving his bank and trying to rebuild its reputation while improving profitability.

He said that it could take up to a decade to change Barclays’ culture, but that the bank was on track to do so. For the three months ending in September Barclays declared a pre-tax profit of £1.4 billion. Although this was down from the same quarter last year it was up from the £1.3 billion expected by analysts.

However, investment bank profits dropped from £988 million down to £463 million. Uncertainty over the monetary policy of the US Federal Reserve has hit banks all over the world. Although shares in Barclays had dropped to their lowest level in two months on Tuesday, they have since regained 3.6 per cent and are currently trading at 275.5 pence.

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