Reuters and the Wall Street Journal are reporting that the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has become the latest regulator to investigate the global foreign exchange market following allegations of rigging, the Wall Street Journal in particular reported on Tuesday, citing two people familiar with the matter.
The antitrust watchdog recently shared information relating to its investigation with Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which is at the forefront of probes into the global currency market, the Journal reported, citing sources.
“The CMA does not comment on whether or not it is conducting cartel investigations,” a CMA spokeswoman wrote in an email, while a spokesman for the FCA declined to comment on the report.
The CMA acquired it’s powers on April 1st 2014, when it took over many of the functions of the Competition Commission (CC and the Office of Fair Trading (OFT. Since the FX investigations is a problem global in nature, it is not clear what the CMA can do other than use it’s “expertise” to provide some insightful recommendations perhaps. It seems likely the UK can provide some leadership on solving the issues presented by the scandal as it is the FX capital of the world, more than any other regulators or countries, it has an unofficial mandate to lead the way.