Citigroup fires senior trader amid foreign exchange investigation

Article by Wall Street Journal

LONDON—A senior Citigroup Inc. currency trader in London has been fired in connection with a global investigation into alleged efforts to manipulate foreign exchange markets, two people familiar with the matter said.

Rohan Ramchandani, formerly the bank's head of European "spot" foreign-exchange trading, is the first banker to lose his job as a result of the global currency market probe.

Mr. Ramchandani, who agreed to go on paid leave from the bank in October, was a senior figure among London's currency traders. As recently as December 2012, he served on a banking industry forum of senior foreign exchange traders hosted by the Bank of England.

A spokesman for Citigroup confirmed that Mr. Ramchandani was no longer employed by the firm. Mr. Ramchandani couldn't be reached for comment.

The former Citigroup banker was one of a handful of members of an electronic chat room at one point dubbed The Cartel that is at the center of a probe involving authorities in the U.K., U.S., Asia and Europe, people familiar with the matter said. Investigators are looking into whether traders at some of the biggest banks in the world cooperated to benefit unduly from shifts in the $5.3 trillion a day currencies market.

The investigation got under way in April when the U.K.'s Financial Conduct Authority began looking into foreign currency trading. Last month, The Wall Street Journal reported that banks had discovered evidence in chat room transcripts of traders at different banks working as a pack to unfairly move markets in their favor,by, for example, agreeing on a sequence in which they would place trades.

Citigroup is the world's second-largest currencies dealing bank.

Several other banks have also suspended traders in connection with the probe.