Swiss bank UBS must pay $1.5 bn for rigging LIBOR
20 Dec 2012 5:47 AM IST
Swiss banking giant UBS said on Wednesday it had agreed to pay about $1.5 billion to British, US and Swiss regulators to settle allegations it manipulated LIBOR interest rates.
The LIBOR rate is a reference point for vast ranges of financial contracts around the world, and revelations that it had been rigged have damaged the reputation of the City of London financial centre.
‘UBS agrees to pay approximately CHF 1.4 billion in fines and disgorgement to US, UK and Swiss authorities to resolve LIBOR-related investigations,’ the statement said.
The bank, the biggest in Switzerland, will pay more than three times the amount of the settlement reached in June with Britain’s Barclays, another one of the more than dozen banks investigated for trying to rig global interest rates.
As part of the one of the biggest fines ever slapped on a financial institution, the Swiss bank said it had agreed to pay $260 million in fines to the UK Financial Services Authority. It will pay $64 million as disgorgement, or compensatory penalty, of estimated profits to the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA).
It also said it had agreed to payment schedules for a total of $1.2 billion to the US Department of Justice and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
UBS was the first bank to reveal problems in the rate-setting process of the LIBOR, an acronym for London Interbank Offered Rate, which estimates the rates at which banks lend money to each other and also affects huge numbers of contracts around the world.
Other banks are also reportedly in advanced talks with regulators about settling allegations that they too manipulated their LIBOR information, including Royal Bank of Scotland and Deutsche Bank.
The LIBOR rate is a reference point for vast ranges of financial contracts around the world, and revelations that it had been rigged have damaged the reputation of the City of London financial centre.
‘UBS agrees to pay approximately CHF 1.4 billion in fines and disgorgement to US, UK and Swiss authorities to resolve LIBOR-related investigations,’ the statement said.
The bank, the biggest in Switzerland, will pay more than three times the amount of the settlement reached in June with Britain’s Barclays, another one of the more than dozen banks investigated for trying to rig global interest rates.
As part of the one of the biggest fines ever slapped on a financial institution, the Swiss bank said it had agreed to pay $260 million in fines to the UK Financial Services Authority. It will pay $64 million as disgorgement, or compensatory penalty, of estimated profits to the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA).
It also said it had agreed to payment schedules for a total of $1.2 billion to the US Department of Justice and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
UBS was the first bank to reveal problems in the rate-setting process of the LIBOR, an acronym for London Interbank Offered Rate, which estimates the rates at which banks lend money to each other and also affects huge numbers of contracts around the world.
Other banks are also reportedly in advanced talks with regulators about settling allegations that they too manipulated their LIBOR information, including Royal Bank of Scotland and Deutsche Bank.
Next Story
