Citigroup Agrees to Pay Fine Over State Libor Probes
Image by Mike Mozart
Bloomberg is reporting that Citigroup Inc. agreed to pay a combined $100 million to 42 U.S. states to resolve a probe into fraudulent conduct tied to interest-rate manipulation that affected financial instruments worth trillions of dollars.
The states had alleged Citigroup misrepresented the integrity of the Libor benchmark to state and local governments, not-for-profit organizations and institutional trading counterparties, sometimes to protect the bank’s own reputation, reports Erik Larson.
“The accord is the latest development in probes by governments around the globe into manipulation of benchmark interest rates, one of the key scandals that led to a cultural overhaul of the industry over the past decade,” Larson writes. “Global fines have topped $9 billion. In October, Deutsche Bank paid 45 states $220 million in penalties and disgorgements to resolve U.S. and U.K. probes.”
