Barclays Plc has suspended three currency traders, including achief dealer in London, amid a probe into potentialforeign-exchange manipulation, according to a person with knowledgeof the decision.

Chris Ashton, who was identified as global head of voice spottrading in a Barclays e-mail last month, and spot currency tradersJack Murray and Mark Clark were suspended, said the person, whoasked not to be identified because they aren't authorized to speakpublicly about the matter. None of the three has been accused ofany wrongdoing, said the person.

Ashton didn't respond to messages left on his work or mobiletelephones, and didn't reply to an e-mail seeking comment. Murrayand Clark didn't return messages left on their work telephones orreply to e-mails. Barclays, one of the four biggest currencytraders in the world, is reviewing trading over a several years andis cooperating with regulators' requests for information, accordingto a statement.

Regulators in the U.K., Switzerland, the U.S., and Asia areprobing the $5.3 trillion-a-day foreign-exchange market afterBloomberg News reported in June that dealers in the industry saidthey had been front-running client orders and attempting to rig thebenchmark WM/Reuters rates by colluding with counterparts andpushing through trades before and during the 60-second windows whenthe benchmarks are set. Firms across the industry and regulatorshave been reviewing records of instant messages, e-mails, phonecalls, and trading data.

RBS Traders

Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, Britain's biggest publiclyowned bank, has suspended London-based foreign exchange tradersPaul Nash and Julian Munson as part of its internal investigation,a person with knowledge of the matter said today. Neither could bereached at their office numbers or replied to e-mails seekingcomment. Neither has been accused of any wrongdoing, the personsaid.

“We will come down very severely on anyone who we discover isbreaking the rules,” RBS Chief Executive Officer Ross McEwan, 56,told reporters on a conference call today. He declined to commenton the suspended traders.

In London, three of the most senior traders in the industry havebeen put on leave. Citigroup Inc.'s head of European spot trading,Rohan Ramchandani, was told this week he will be placed on leavewhile Richard Usher, a former RBS trader who became JPMorgan Chase& Co.'s chief dealer in London, went on leave two weeks ago,people with knowledge of the investigations have said. StandardChartered Plc has also placed Matt Gardiner, its assistant chiefdealer in the U.K. capital, on leave, another person said.

Citigroup, JPMorgan

Both Citigroup and JPMorgan said in statements today they'recooperating with government agencies in the U.S. and elsewhereprobing the currency markets.

In Europe, Deutsche Bank AG said this week it's cooperating withregulators, while Switzerland's UBS AG said Oct. 29 it's takingmeasures against employees. The Zurich-based firm didn't identifyor quantify the number of employees involved, or say what actionsit took.

Four banks account for more than half of the foreign-exchangemarket, according to a May survey by Euromoney InstitutionalInvestor Plc. Deutsche Bank is No. 1 with a 15 percent share,followed by Citigroup with almost 15 percent and Barclays andSwitzerland's UBS, which both have 10 percent.

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