The Financial Times has this today:
UK Treasury urges BoE to consider time stamps for forex trades
The FT is usually gated, but they do offer articles to be read with a free registration.
In brief:
- The Bank of England is being urged by the UK Treasury to consider requiring time stamps for all foreign exchange trades
- As part of reforms
- But the central bank has been tepid about the proposal
- Advocates of time stamps say such a rule would create an audit trail and enable bank customers to see the forex rates offered at the time of transaction
- Time stamps are already widely used in wholesale forex markets but not in spot trades for retail and institutional investors
All reforms have some cost.
I can't imagine the cost of doing this would be high.
The article says the BoE isn't keen on requiring this .... they're "tepid". Seriously? FFS ... this is a no brainer.