BP’s traders dragged into forex scandal

OIL giant BP has been dragged into the foreign exchange price-fix scandal, it emerged yesterday.

Traders on BP’s foreign exchange trading desk were in contact with individuals at major banks at the heart of the forex manipulation scandal, according to reports.

BP said last night it had launched an internal review last year when regulators began their investigation into rigging at the big banks, and this inquiry is still ongoing.

But details of contact between the BP traders and those at the banks raise questions over the oil giant’s involvement in the alleged attempt to rig the world’s £3.5trillion-a-day forex markets.

Last month six banks were fined more than £2.6bn for fixing currency markets when incriminating conversations between traders were made public. The Bloomberg newswire said BP traders had information from four banks – calling themselves ‘ The Cartel’ – revealing details of currency moves ‘minutes, sometimes hours before they happened’.

The banks named were JP Morgan Chase, Barclays, UBS and Citigroup but there was no information about whether any BP employee acted on the information. It was claimed Andrew White, a member of BP’s treasury trading unit, joined in electronic conversations with ‘The Cartel’.

The forex scandal has already included no fewer than 11 banks and has led to more than 30 traders from London to Singapore being sacked or suspended.

BP is not being investigated by regulators. The company commented: ‘BP has a robust framework of compliance requirements and internal controls which are constantly reviewed, and maintains an open dialogue with the appropriate regulators.’