Yahoo Finance Barclays In $100m US Rate-Rigging Settlement
Barclays (LSE: BARC.L - news) has reached a $100m (£77m) settlement with 44 US states over claims it manipulated benchmark Libor and Euribor interest rates.
The pay-out relates to alleged misconduct dating back more than a decade to the period around the global financial crisis and is the latest hit to the bank over the scandal.
Barclays was fined £290m in 2012 by regulators in the UK and US for Libor-rigging and the fall-out claimed the job of then chief executive Bob Diamond.
The scandal - which subsequently engulfed banking giants around the world - centred on interbank lending rates, calculated based on submissions by the banks and used as the basis for trillions of dollars of financial contracts.
The latest deal was announced by New York's Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who said government bodies were "defrauded of millions" when they entered into complex financial contracts known as "swaps" with the bank.
Between 2005 and 2009, some of its traders tried to manipulate the Libor rates submitted by others at the bank to boost their own positions, according to the probe.
Mr Schneiderman said Barclays was the first of several banks under investigation by the US states to reach a settlement, and that it had cooperated with the inquiry.
He said: "There has to be one set of rules for everyone, no matter how rich or how powerful, and that includes big banks and other financial institutions that engage in fraud or impair the fair functioning of financial markets."
Barclays said it was pleased to have resolved the probe.
A spokesman said: "We believe this settlement is in the best interests of our shareholders and clients, and allows us to continue to focus on the future and serve our clients."
Last month the bank reported a 21% fall in half-year profits to £2bn as it set aside an extra £400m to cover the costs of compensating customers who were mis-sold Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) - another past scandal that continues to dog lenders (Other OTC: UBGXF - news) .
