Monday, July 28, 2014

Lloyds Banking Group Fined £218m Over Libor



Lloyds Banking Group has been fined £218m by UK and US regulators over manipulation of the Libor benchmark.



The UK regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), fined Lloyds £105m.



The US Commodities and Futures Trading Commission fined Lloyds £62m and the US Department of Justice penalty was £51m.



The FCA fine was for serious Libor and other benchmark failings by Lloyds and the Bank of Scotland.



The watchdog said that between April 2008 and September 2009, there was manipulation of submission rates payable to the Bank of England (BoE) for participation in the taxpayer-backed special liquidity scheme (SLS).



It said £70m of the fine to the firms related to attempts to manipulate the fees payable to the BoE for participation in the SLS.



In addition to the inter-bank rate-rigging, the so-called repo rate benchmark suffered manipulation attempts.



Lloyds would have been hit by a 30% larger FCA fine if it did not settle at an early stage.



The FCA said more than a dozen individuals at the firms, including seven managers, were directly involved in or were aware of, the Libor manipulation.



On Friday, Sky News City Editor Mark Kleinman revealed the 25% taxpayer-owned group would seek to clawback bonuses paid to at least 15 former employees implicated in the inter-bank rate scandal.



Following the announcement of the fine, the BoE said in a statement: “On June 14 the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced the launch of the Fair and Effective Markets Review.



“Led by the bank, in conjunction with the FCA and HM Treasury, this review seeks to restore public confidence in wholesale financial markets and ensure the highest standards of conduct by the participants.



“This incident represents yet another demonstration of the pressing need for such a review.”



More follows…





Lloyds Banking Group Fined £218m Over Libor

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