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 DoJ prosecutors are scrutinizing the price-setting process for gold,
silver, platinum and palladium in London, while the CFTC has opened
a civil investigation, the newspaper said.
The banks are HSBC Holdings Plc, Bank of Nova Scotia, Barclays Plc,
Credit Suisse Group AG, Deutsche Bank AG, Goldman Sachs Group Inc,
JPMorgan Chase & Co, Societe Generale, Standard Bank Group Ltd and
UBS Group AG, the Journal said.
Standard Bank spokesman Erik Larsen declined to comment on the
report. The other banks, the DoJ and CFTC did not immediately
respond to requests for comment.
The CFTC issued a subpoena to HSBC Bank USA in January seeking
documents related to the bank's precious metals trading operations,
HSBC said on Monday.
The DoJ also issued a request to HSBC Holdings in November seeking
documents related to a criminal antitrust investigation it is
conducting in relation to precious metals, HSBC said.
Precious metal benchmarks have come under increased regulatory
scrutiny since a scandal broke in 2012 over manipulation of Libor
interest rates.
HSBC was one of several banks named in lawsuits filed in U.S. courts
last year alleging a conspiracy to manipulate gold, silver, platinum
and palladium prices, as well as precious metals derivatives, during
the daily precious metals fixes.
The century-old gold fix is a standard price for the metal that
banks set twice a day over the phone. Some gold traders claim they
were harmed by a scheme to manipulate the fix.
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The banks operating the precious metals benchmarks, known as the
fixes, said last year they would no longer administer that process.
An electronic daily silver price benchmark is now administered by
Thomson Reuters and CME Group, while the London Metal Exchange
provides twice-daily benchmark platinum and palladium prices.
ICE Benchmark Administration will run an electronic gold price
benchmark from March 20 to replace the London gold fix.
Switzerland's financial watchdog said in November it had found a
"clear attempt" to manipulate precious metals price benchmarks.
An investigation by German regulator Bafin found no signs of
attempted benchmark price manipulation in precious metals, newspaper
Handelsblatt reported last month.
(Reporting by Supriya Kurane in Bengaluru; Editing by Anupama
Dwivedi and Ted Kerr)
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