Citigroup Inc on Friday agreed to pay US$100 million to settle charges that its bankers manipulated the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR), an important interest rate used to price everything from credit cards to mortgages.
It is the latest major bank to settle charges related to the manipulation of the rate.
Citi is to pay US$100 million to the New York State Attorney General’s Office and 41 other states involved with the investigation, New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood said on Friday.
New York has been leading the LIBOR investigations due to size of its banking industry, which is concentrated around Wall Street.
The attorney general’s office said that Citi earned millions in revenue off manipulating LIBOR, along with other financial institutions.
“Our office has zero tolerance for fraudulent or manipulative conduct that undermines our financial markets,” Underwood said in a statement. “Financial institutions have a basic responsibility to play by the rules — and we will continue to hold those accountable who don’t.”
The LIBOR is reported at 11:30am in London each day and is a widely quoted interest rate used to price a myriad of financial instruments. Credit card interest rates typically use LIBOR as their benchmark.
Citi in 2013 paid US$95 million to EU authorities over its role in LIBOR manipulation.
Friday’s settlement “represents another significant step for Citi in resolving its legacy interbank offered rate litigation,” the bank said in a statement.
Several banks have been accused of, and have settled, charges that their traders and bankers manipulated LIBOR.
Swiss bank UBS AG has paid more than US$1.5 billion in fines and penalties to US and EU authorities for its manipulation of LIBOR.
JPMorgan Chase & Co paid more than US$100 million in fines to EU authorities for its role in interest rate manipulation and British bank Barclays PLC has paid more than half-a-billion dollars in fines and penalties to settle allegations.
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