The United States regulators have summoned seven banks, including HSBC (NYSE:HBC), Barclays (LON:BARC) and Royal Bank of Scotland (NYSE:RBS), as investigations continue into the libor manipulation scandal.
About
a month ago, Barclays was fined approximately $454 million by UK and US
authorities. At that time, it was also revealed that other banks might also be
involved in interbank rate manipulation. The investigations were further widened
and now seven banks have received subpoenas from Attorney General of New York
and Connecticut.
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The following
banks have been called:
1. HSBC
2. Royal
Bank of Scotland
3. Barclays
4. Citigroup
5. JPMorgan
6. UBS
7. Deutsche
Bank
The
investigators have assumed that at least one other bank, out of the seven, must
have worked with Barclays to successfully manipulate libor. UBS had also announced in its Q2
results that it was currently being investigated by government authorities.
RBS
CEO Stephen Hester had said earlier this month that his bank has already taken
strict action against those found involved in the scandal, which included dismissal
of some of the staff. He believes that "the regulators must decide how
they want to deal with the situation. We will stand up and take any punishment
that comes our way,"
According
to an analyst at SRN, “This is the first time we're seeing a legal case that is
trying to prove [collusion]. If they can prove it, then all the fees could
amount to tens of millions of pounds,"
In
other words, if criminal charges are successfully applied then the banks might
even have to pay those investors who suffered losses due to rate rigging.
.
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Relevant
Links
UK
banks face Libor subpoenas from US regulators [The Guardian]
Libor
scandal: US regulators summon seven banks [The Telegraph]
.
