The European Union antitrust regulators are about to impose large fines on a group of global banks for manipulating benchmark interest rates, most notably the London interbank offered rate, or Libor.
The penalties range from hundreds of millions of euros, to around one billion euros depending on the size of the bank. Industry analysts say this could be among the largest penalties ever imposed by the EU. The six global banks involved in the case are France’s Credit Agricole and Societe Generale, Germany’s Deutsche Bank, the UK’s HSBC and RBS, and the U.S’s J.P Morgan Chase.
A seventh bank Barclays, is likely to avoid a penalty, as it has cooperated extensively with EU regulators. The fines against each bank are expected to be announced within the next month.