BARCLAYS HAS been fined £290 million, the largest penalties ever imposed by regulators in the US and UK, after admitting it submitted false London and euro interbank offered rates.
Chief executive Robert Diamond and three lieutenants will forgo their bonuses as a result.
“A member of senior management” instructed Barclays’ Libor staff to lower their submissions to make them match other banks and dispel concern about the lender’s health, the US commodities futures trading commission said.
Derivatives traders requested the false submissions in the Libor and Euribor setting process, as they were “motivated by profit and sought to benefit Barclays’ trading positions,” the UK financial services authority said.
The settlements with the FSA, the CFTC and the US department of justice are the first in an investigation into whether banks tried to manipulate Libor, the benchmark rate for $360 trillion of securities, to hide their true cost of borrowing. Citigroup, Royal Bank of Scotland Group, UBS, ICAP, Lloyds Banking Group and Deutsche Bank are among firms being investigated by regulators worldwide. – (Bloomberg)
