The US Department of State has launched a probe into whether the world’s biggest banks manipulated precious metal prices.
Ten banks including JP Morgan, Credit Suisse, UBS and others are under the prosecutors magnifying glass.
The investigation is in its early stages and joins the criminal probe into the alleged rigging of interbank lending rates and currency markets.
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 have been hurt by a scheme to manipulate the fix.
The banks involved are HSBC Holdings Plc HSBA.L, Bank of Nova Scotia BNS.TO, Barclays Plc BARC.L, Credit Suisse Group AG CSGN.VX, Deutsche Bank AG DBKGn.DE, Goldman Sachs Group Inc GS.N, JPMorgan Chase & Co JPM.N, Societe Generale SOGN.PA, Standard Bank Group Ltd SBKJ.J and UBS Group AG UBSG.VX,
