Barclays confirms foreign exchange probe

• Probes focus on multiple participants in several countries
• Barclays announcement followed similar confirmation by UBS%2C Deutsche Bank
• U.S. Department of Justice and CFTC among the investigators

London-based banking giant Barclays has joined other global banks confirming that regulators have asked them for information in an investigation of possible manipulation of foreign exchange rates used to set trillions of dollars of investments.

While announcing third-quarter earnings Wednesday, Barclays said it was cooperating with the multi-national investigations, which "appear to involve multiple market participants in various countries."

Barclays said regulators and investigators told the bank the investigations' focus on on foreign currency traders includes "possible attempts to manipulate certain benchmark currency exchange rates or engage in other activities that would benefit their trading positions."

The bank said it was conducting a separate internal review of its own foreign exchange trading "covering a several year period through August 2013."

The announcement followed similar confirmations Tuesday by UBS, Switzerland's largest bank, and German banking giant Deutsche Bank. Mythili Raman, head of the U.S. Department of Justice's criminal division also said Tuesday that federal prosecutors are investigating possible foreign exchange trading abuses.

Great Britain's Financial Conduct Authority, and Switzerland's Financial Market Supervisory Authority and Competition Commission are also investigating. Additionally, UBS' announcement said the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission is probing the issue.

The official bank acknowledgements followed a Bloomberg News report in June that said some bank traders had shared information about their foreign exchange positions via instant messages, executed their own trades ahead of client orders and tried to manipulate the benchmark foreign exchange rates reported by WM/Reuters.

Those reported rates, considered the industry standard, determine what many pension funds and money managers pay for foreign exchange investments. The Bloomberg account cited five unidentified traders with knowledge of the suspected practices.

The foreign exchange investigations are the latest global probes into potential rigging of financial benchmarks that affect trillions of dollars in personal and business transactions. Regulators and law enforcement agencies to date have penalized four banks and a major inter-dealer broker for manipulation of the London Interbank Offered Rate.

Popularly referred to as Libor, that benchmark is used to set rates on mortgages and many types of loans, along with some financial derivatives.