LONDON - Two more banks have suspended employees in the latest escalation of an investigation into potential manipulation of the $5 trillion-a-day foreign exchange markets, according to people with knowledge with the matter.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch has placed Joseph Landes, the head of spot foreign exchange trading in Europe, on leave, while BNP Paribas has suspended Robert de Groot, its head of spot currency trading, according to the people, who were not authorized to speak publicly.
Mr. Landes is currently listed as inactive in a register of bank employees maintained by the Financial Conduct Authority, the British financial regulator.
Mr. Landes and Mr. de Groot couldn’t be reached for comment on Friday.
Bank of America and BNP Paribas declined comment.
The Wall Street Journal reported the suspensions on Thursday.
Regulators in Britain, the United States and other countries are investigating whether traders at the world’s largest banks colluded to manipulate key currency benchmarks, such as the 4 p.m. fix for pound sterling to United States dollar.
More than 20 traders have been placed on leave or fired as a result of internal investigations at several large institutions in foreign exchange trading, including Barclays, JPMorgan Chase and UBS.
Deutsche Bank, the largest player in the currency trading market, with a share of about 15.2 percent, and Citigroup have fired employees as a result of their own investigations.
None of the banks nor any of the suspended or fired traders has been accused of wrongdoing.
Earlier this week, the Bank of England announced that it had suspended an employee amid its own internal review into whether bank officials knew of or condoned manipulation of the currency markets.
The central bank has said that an “extensive†internal review of documents, emails and other records found no evidence that Bank of England staff members colluded in any way in manipulating the currency market or in sharing of confidential client information.
But a staff member was suspended pending an investigation into whether the employee complied with its internal control processes, the central bank said. The Bank of England staff member hasn’t been identified.
Mark J. Carney, the Bank of England governor, is expected to appear before the Treasury Select Committee next week, and will be questioned about the currency trading investigation.
Andrew Tyrie, the Treasury Select Committee chairman, has called for a stronger board at the Bank of England in light of the investigation.
The central bank has faced questions in recent months about communications between its staff members and traders on an industry subcommittee that discussed issues affecting the currency markets.
Mr. de Groot, the suspended BNP trader, is one of several traders who served on the subcommittee; a number of them have been fired or suspended by their employers.
The subcommittee, which was made up of Bank of England officials, industry leaders and trade group members, met three or four times a year to discuss developments in the markets. The last time the subcommittee met was in February 2013.
According to minutes of the subcommittee released earlier this week, the issue of potential manipulation of currency benchmarks was discussed by the panel as far back as July 2006.
“It was noted that there was evidence of attempts to move the market around popular fixing times by players that had no particular interest in that fix,†according to the minutes of the July 2006 meeting.
