The U.S. Department of Justice and British officials may file criminal charges this summer against Barclays employees that allegedly rigged Libor rates, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The formal charges would reinforce a new strategy in the six-year investigation into the scandal, targeting individuals instead of just institutions, the newspaper said Friday, citing unnamed sources.
However, although officials have called for current and former bank executives to be held responsible for the scandal, the sources said the charges will instead target mid-level employees, the Wall Street Journal said.
When it admitted wrongdoing in a $450 million settlement with U.S. and British regulators last year, Barclays admitted its derivatives traders asked others to adjust the bank's Libor rate submission to benefit trading positions. The scandal was documented with emails between bank employees discussing the price-fixing scheme.
Regulators are said to be pursuing settlements with other banks involved in the scandal – Citibank and Bank of America are among U.S. institutions that may have been involved, the Wall Street Journal report said.
While the scheme had little effect on credit unions, corporates that owned assets tied to the Libor index were probably underpaid on their investments when the rate was set artificially low, credit union industry experts have said.
Complete your profile to continue reading and get FREE access to CUTimes.com, part of your ALM digital membership.
Your access to unlimited CUTimes.com content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking credit union news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Weekly Shared Accounts podcast featuring exclusive interviews with industry leaders
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical coverage of the commercial real estate and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, GlobeSt.com and ThinkAdvisor.com
Already have an account? Sign In Now
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
