The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision announced on Friday that the foreign-exchange working group (FXWG) has been established to strengthen conduct standards and principles in the global foreign-exchange (FX) markets in the wake of the latest trading scandal in the financial services sector.
The group, which includes members from major financial centres in both advanced and emerging-market economies, aims to develop a single global code of conduct and to promote adherence to these standards and principles.
The group’s creation follows a scandal that involved traders at many of the world’s major financial services firms, which resulted in in billions of dollars in fines and banks pleading guilty to felony charges in the U.S.
In addition to the FXWG, the market participants group is also being established to get input from both the buy side and sell side of the market, along with market infrastructure providers.
The FXWG has just held its first meeting in Singapore and has agreed on two work streams: the drafting of the new single global code and developing proposals to promote and incentivize adherence to that new code. It aims to finalize the new code by May 2017.
“A single, global common code of conduct is a necessary goal for the FX industry. The code will be principles-based — rather than rules-based — and will provide guidance on what is, as well as what is not, appropriate behaviour for practitioners in the FX market,” said Guy Debelle, who heads the committee, and is assistant governor at the Reserve Bank of Australia.