Tuesday, July 2, 2019 - Switzerland fines Rabobank for 350,000 euros in Libor case

Rabobank
Source - https://www.tellerreport.com/business/2019-07-02---switzerland-fines-rabobank-for-350-000-euros-in-libor-case-.SJUr6cOlS.html
Where - Switzerland
Cost - 685,000 CHF
Business line - Trading and Sales

The Dutch bank Rabobank must pay a fine of EUR 350,000 (CHF 390,000) in Switzerland. The competition authority WEKO imposes the fine for tampering with interest benchmark Libor. That scandal already came to light in 2012. The fine is the result of a settlement between the bank and WEKO.

In addition to Rabobank, the British bank Lloyds has also been fined. That bank will be fined 295,000 Swiss francs, equivalent to 264,000 euros. There are still ongoing investigations into the banks UBS and HSBC and the brokers ICAP, RP Martin and Tullett Prebon.

The London interbank offered rate, Libor for short, is the interest rate at which banks lend money to each other worldwide.

In 2012, it turned out that banks cheated on the rate for years. Sometimes a higher percentage was passed on so that more profit could be made. At the height of the credit crisis in 2008, interest rates were deliberately kept low in order to disguise the panic that existed in the financial world.

Rabobank was already fined 774 million euros in 2013 by the British and American regulators and De Nederlandsche Bank for its involvement in the Liborfraud. The case also led to the resignation of CEO Piet Moerland.