(Image Source: Bloomberg)
BY JOHN O’CONNOR
ANCHOR JASMINE BAILEY
Swiss banking giant UBS has agreed to pay $1.5 billion in penalty fees to American, British, and Swiss regulators for attempting to manipulate the Libor lending rate. Sky News has more.
“UBS is the second major bank to be fined for rigging the rates, which can influence the cost of loans and mortgages.”
The London Interbank Offered Rate, abbreviated Libor, is the primary benchmark for short term interest rates across the world. Bloomberg reports …
“Regulators found that traders at UBS made more than 2,000 requests to its own rate submitters, traders at other banks, and brokers to manipulate rate submissions through 2010 … [UBS] paid brokers as much as … $24,400 a quarter over at least 18 months to help manipulate … Libor submissions by other banks.”
The Wall Street Journal notes until UBS’s Wednesday settlement, Britain’s Barclays was the only other bank to admit and settle for rigging benchmark rates.
“Barclays last June paid roughly $450 million to resolve the investigations … UBS is paying a fine that is more than triple what Barclays paid … ”
A business correspondent for the BBC says the key difference between the Barclays settlement and the UBS one is that regulators couldn’t prove Barclays had profited from adjusting the rates, but say they do have evidence to show UBS did …
“And the more that there is evidence that the banks profited, the risks for these banks is that they will end up paying enormous damages to these investors — damages which could equal multiple of these fines.”
Reuters reports more than a dozen banks are under investigation for similar charges, with the Royal Bank of Scotland being the next in line to broker a settlement with regulators sometime early 2013.
(Image Source: Bloomberg)
BY JOHN O’CONNOR
ANCHOR JASMINE BAILEY
Swiss banking giant UBS has agreed to pay $1.5 billion in penalty fees to American, British, and Swiss regulators for attempting to manipulate the Libor lending rate. Sky News has more.
“UBS is the second major bank to be fined for rigging the rates, which can influence the cost of loans and mortgages.”
The London Interbank Offered Rate, abbreviated Libor, is the primary benchmark for short term interest rates across the world. Bloomberg reports …
“Regulators found that traders at UBS made more than 2,000 requests to its own rate submitters, traders at other banks, and brokers to manipulate rate submissions through 2010 … [UBS] paid brokers as much as … $24,400 a quarter over at least 18 months to help manipulate … Libor submissions by other banks.”
The Wall Street Journal notes until UBS’s Wednesday settlement, Britain’s Barclays was the only other bank to admit and settle for rigging benchmark rates.
“Barclays last June paid roughly $450 million to resolve the investigations … UBS is paying a fine that is more than triple what Barclays paid … ”
A business correspondent for the BBC says the key difference between the Barclays settlement and the UBS one is that regulators couldn’t prove Barclays had profited from adjusting the rates, but say they do have evidence to show UBS did …
“And the more that there is evidence that the banks profited, the risks for these banks is that they will end up paying enormous damages to these investors — damages which could equal multiple of these fines.”
Reuters reports more than a dozen banks are under investigation for similar charges, with the Royal Bank of Scotland being the next in line to broker a settlement with regulators sometime early 2013.
