UBS agreed to pay a record SFr1.4bn ($1.5bn) to US, UK and Swiss regulators to settle allegations of “pervasive” and “epic” efforts to manipulate interbank lending rates as two of its former traders faced the first criminal charges in the worldwide Libor scandal.
The Swiss bank’s Japanese subsidiary pleaded guilty to criminal wire fraud as the group acknowledged that dozens of employees had attempted to manipulate the London Interbank Offered Rate and similar interbank lending rates between 2005 and 2010.
The imposition of one of the largest penalties ever faced by a bank is a new peak in the sprawling four-year investigation that has drawn in close to 20 banks and interdealer brokers. Both US and UK regulators said the scale of wrongdoing at UBS far exceeded that at Barclays, which settled with authorities in June.