British bank HBOS is to hand over its own detailed account of the unusual activity around its shares last week to the country's financial watchdog to support a three-pronged probe into false market rumours.
More than £3 billion was wiped off HBOS's value in less than an hour last Wednesday, prompting an unprecedented public reaction from the Financial Services Authority (FSA) against 'unfounded rumours'.
Shares in HBOS have since recovered, but the FSA said it was looking at the spread of the rumours which was sometimes accompanied by short-selling among all UK banks.
'We're pulling together our understanding of what happened and will send that to the regulator and they will use it as they see fit,' a spokesman for HBOS said.
The FSA declined to comment on individual shares but a spokeswoman said it would probably look at activity in banks going back to March 12.
