A former foreign-exchange trader at Barclays pleaded guilty on January 4 to conspiring to manipulate currency rates, the first individual publicly charged in an investigation over collusion at top global banks to move the rates.

Jason Katz, who worked on the New York foreign-exchange desk at Barclays and two other banks, admitted to working between 2007 and 2013 with dealers at other institutions to fix prices for currencies in central and eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, the Justice Department said.