Chat rooms have been a focus for regulators
investigating manipulation of benchmark interest rates and
possible rigging in the $5.3 trillion-a-day foreign exchange
market.
"We have banned the use of multi-party chatrooms in FX (foreign
exchange) trading already in the first quarter, and we have
extended this ban to other parts of our fixed income business",
a Deutsche Bank spokesman said on Wednesday.
Last week, UBS issued a memo to staff banning the use of
multibank and social chat rooms at its investment banking
division.
Citigroup and Barclays have also clamped down on chatroom use,
according to people familiar with the matter.
Citigroup and Barclays declined to comment.
Chat communications featured prominently in a five-year probe
into manipulation of a key interest rate known as the London
interbank offered rate, or Libor, which has so far seen five
financial firms pay more than $3.5 billion in penalties.
In a global probe into possible currency manipulation,
regulators are scrutinizing messages between traders for alleged
evidence that they worked together improperly to influence
currency "fixes" — the daily snapshots of trading used by
companies and portfolio managers for valuing their assets.
[REUTERS
MEDIA; By Arno Schuetze and Alexander Huebner]
(Reporting by Arno Schuetze and
Alexander Huebner; editing by Carmel Crimmins and Louise
Heavens)
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