No probe into investment bank profit

LONDON (Reuters) - Financial services minister Lord Myners will voice concerns over bumper investment banking profits in a speech in December, but no investigation of the sector is under way, a Treasury spokesman said.

"Lord Myners intends to delve further into these issues in a speech early next month," the spokesman said.

"There isn't a formal investigation."

The Sunday Times newspaper reported that Myners had launched a probe into whether recent hefty investment banking profits had been facilitated by the billions of pounds of public money pumped into the financial system.

HSBC in August reported that its investment banking profits rose by 130 percent in the first half of the year, while rival Barclays said its investment banking profit doubled.

Investment banks pay out a high proportion of their profits in the form of staff bonuses, a practice which critics say fuelled a culture of excessive risk-taking which contributed to the credit crunch and subsequent banking crisis.

(Reporting by Myles Neligan; Editing by Mike Nesbit)