Goldman Sachs fires top foreign exchange trader for ‘breaking internal rules’

One of Goldman Sach's top foreign exchange traders in London has been sacked for breaking the investment bank's internal rules.

The news came as Goldman announced fourth-quarter results which confirmed that revenues from currency, fixed income and commodities trading fell from the third quarter.

Kevin Connors, co-head of global forex sales in the G10 currencies, left the bank suddenly last week.

Although Goldman declined to comment, sources said he had broken internal rules but had not acted illegally or harmed clients.

Connors, previously head of commodity trading at UBS Warburg, joined Goldman in 1990 and was made a partner in 2008.He is likely to have been among its top earners given the importance of forex trading to the bank.

Goldman is trying to repair its reputation after the Abacus affair in which it and London employee Fabrice Tourre were accused of misleading investors.

Goldman was fined £17.5 million by the Financial Services Authority and agreed to pay $550 million (£344.5 million) to settle a Securities & Exchange Commission lawsuit.

Earlier this month the bank published an internal review which promised greater disclosure on how much it trades on its own behalf and tightening compliance rules.

Connors could not be reached for comment.