Lord Myners – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Myners on 2014-04-01.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have commissioned any investigation into, or received any report about, possible manipulation of auctions conducted by the Debt Management Office on behalf of HM Treasury or of purchases of securities under the Asset Purchase Scheme.

Lord Newby

Any evidence relating to the potential manipulation of financial markets received by a public or private body or member of the public should be passed to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which has a statutory responsibility for regulating conduct in financial markets.

Any investigation into the potential manipulation of financial markets would be a matter for the FCA. As a matter of policy the FCA does not normally provide any comment about potential or actual investigations or potential enforcement so as to avoid prejudicing cases.

The FCA announced on 20 March 2014 that it had taken enforcement action against an individual for the manipulation of a government bond in the run up to a Bank of England operation on 10 October 2011. The FCA’s investigation found this was the action of one trader on one day, and there was no evidence of collusion with traders in other banks.