The CFTC issued an order today filing and settling charges against Barclays PLC, Barclays Bank PLC and Barclays Capital Inc. for attempting to manipulate and making false reports concerning the LIBOR and Euribor benchmark interest rates between 2005 and 2009. According to the order, Barclays also asked other banks to participate in the attempted manipulation.
The CFTC order requires Barclays to pay a $200 million civil monetary penalty, cease and desist from further violations, and improve the integrity and reliability of its LIBOR and Euribor submissions.
“The American public and our markets rely upon the integrity of benchmark interest rates like LIBOR and Euribor because they form the basis for hundreds of trillions of dollars of transactions and affect nearly every corner of the global economy,” said David Meister, the CFTC’s Director of Enforcement. “Banks that contribute information to those benchmarks must do so honestly. When a bank acts in its own self-interest by attempting to manipulate these rates for profit, or by submitting false reports that result from senior management orders to lower submissions to guard the bank’s reputation, the integrity of benchmark interest rates is undermined. The CFTC launched this investigation to protect the markets and the public from such illegal conduct, and today’s action demonstrates that we will bring the full force of our authority to bear as we carry out that mission.”
