The Federal Reserve examined a key foreign-exchange benchmark
months before global regulators sounded the alarm about potential
manipulation, but officials took no public action.
Today, that benchmark—the so-called WM/Reuters fix—is at the center
of a burgeoning investigation into whether bank traders and others
colluded to manipulate the $5.3-trillion-a-day currencies market.
Roughly two dozen bank traders have been fired or suspended. Banks are
bracing for potentially huge civil and criminal penalties.
Until earlier this year, the Fed has been absent from the long list of authorities publicly probing the situation.