US and UK authorities have fined Barclays more than $450m for attempting to manipulate the London interbank offered rate, a benchmark interest rate that is used globally to set the price of everything from credit card fees to corporate loans.
Bob Diamond, Barclays chief executive, said that he and three of his top lieutenants would waive any bonus for this year “to reflect our collective responsibility as leaders” as the UK bank admitted to “misconduct” over five years and three continents in its submissions to the bank panels that set Libor and Euribor, the Brussels rate.
The Barclays settlement is the first shoe to drop in a sprawling probe that was launched by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission and now spans nearly a dozen regulators and more than 20 banks. Yesterday’s settlements were with the UK Financial Services Authority, the CFTC and the US Department of Justice.