Diego Moraiz, Robert Wallden and Christopher Fahy were terminated by the bank, which told trading floor staff of the development on Tuesday, according to the source.

The three traders could not be reached for comment.

"Deutsche Bank has received requests for information from regulatory authorities that are investigating trading in the foreign exchange market," a bank spokeswoman said in an emailed statement. "The bank is cooperating with those investigations, and will take disciplinary action with regards to individuals if merited."

The terminations come as authorities around the world, including Britain's Financial Conduct Authority and the U.S. Justice Department, investigate possible manipulation in the $5.3 trillion-a-day global forex market.

Investigators are looking at activity around benchmark foreign exchange rates, often referred to as fixes, which are used to price trillions of dollars worth of investments and deals and relied upon by companies, investors and central banks.

Many of the largest global banks, including Deutsche Bank, UBS AG (>> UBS AG), JPMorgan Chase & Co (>> JPMorgan Chase & Co.) and Citigroup Inc (>> Citigroup Inc), have said they are cooperating with the probes. Several banks have suspended or fired traders.

Earlier in December, Deutsche had suspended Moraiz, a source told Reuters previously. Moraiz, who had been with Deutsche Bank since 2004 and is close to 50, was the head of its emerging markets foreign exchange trading desk and specialized in trading the Mexican peso. He was a managing director, and the most senior of the three traders to be terminated on Tuesday.

Fahy, who is in his mid-30s, and Wallden, 29, were both directors in the forex trading unit.

The Wall Street Journal reported in November that FBI agents had visited Wallden's home, where they showed him transcripts of an electronic chat in which he appeared to boast about trying to manipulate forex markets.

(Reporting By Paritosh Bansal; Editing by Bernard Orr)

By Paritosh Bansal and Emily Flitter

Stocks treated in this article : Citigroup Inc, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Deutsche Bank AG, UBS AG