US officials head for London in bank probe

Officials from the US Department of Justice will interview current or former employees at HSBC Holdings, among other banks, the sources told Reuters.

The plans to interview traders from HSBC do not necessarily indicate that prosecutors will file criminal charges against the bank or its employees. HSBC declined to comment.

The authorities have given banks under investigation until mid-December to turn over related information, one source said. JPMorgan Chase & Co, Citigroup, UBS AG, and others have disclosed that they are under criminal investigation in the foreign exchange probe.

A Justice Department spokesman declined comment, as did representatives of the banks.

The interviews come soon after US, Swiss, and British civil authorities fined those banks and others $4.3bn (£2.74bn) for failing to stop traders from trying to manipulate the largely unregulated $5-trillion-a-day foreign exchange market.

The Justice Department is undertaking a broad probe into whether banks have been colluding to move currency rates and boost their profits in trading, violating fraud or antitrust laws.