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Bank of England fired forex chief for series of misjudgements - Carney

Mark Carney, the governor of the Bank of England gives the bank's quarterly GDP and inflation forecasts at the Bank of England in London, February 12,. 2015. REUTERS/Pool/Antony Devlin

LONDON (Reuters) - The Bank of England dismissed its former chief foreign exchange dealer last year because of a series of inappropriate actions including the sharing of a confidential Bank document, BoE Governor Mark Carney said on Tuesday. Martin Mallett was fired in November at the same time the Bank announced the findings of an independent review into what its staff knew of attempts by foreign exchange traders at leading banks to manipulate currency rates. The BoE inquiry had previously said that Mallett failed to escalate his concerns about possible rigging of the market, but that his dismissal was not related to the scandal. Carney told lawmakers in Britain's parliament that the review of millions of emails, chats, phone conversations had revealed at least 20 examples of misjudgements by Mallett including violations of the Bank's information technology and confidentiality policies. On one occasion, Mallett shared a confidential Bank document and the investigation found that he had given his personal opinion about eventual Bank policy which could have been misjudged by market participants, Carney said. He also used inappropriate language on multiple occasions and included inappropriate attachments on emails, he said. (Writing by William Schomberg Editing by Jeremy Gaunt)