US Seeking Criminal Charges Against Banks for LIBOR
Posted at 1:45 p.m. on Jan. 29
“U.S. authorities are pushing for a settlement of interest-rate-rigging allegations with Royal Bank of Scotland Group that would result in a unit of the big British bank pleading guilty to criminal charges in addition to paying a penalty,” according to the Wall Street Journal.
“RBS would be the third bank to settle allegations that its employees tried to rig the London interbank offered rate, or Libor, and other benchmark rates… U.S. prosecutors are pushing for a unit of RBS—possibly one based in Asia, where some of the alleged rate-rigging took place—to plead guilty to trying to manipulate rates as part of the settlement.”
Felix Salmon doesn’t think this means much: “Justice seems to be treading very carefully here, prosecuting…only with respect to activities in far-flung Asian outposts that no one cares much about… The criminal prosecution, in these cases, seems to be little more than a CYA move on the part of the administration, which can now have a slightly straighter face when saying that it’s being tough on the banks.”
