By Martin de Sa'Pinto
ZURICH, Dec 3 (Reuters) - Swiss bank UBS AG is expected to
pay more than $450 million to U.S. and British authorities to
settle claims some of its employees submitted false Libor rates,
the New York Times reported.
In June, British bank Barclays Plc was fined $453 million
for manipulating Libor benchmark interest rates, becoming the
first bank to settle in the ongoing probe, prompting the
resignation of its chairman and chief executive.
UBS was the first bank globally to report suspected rate
rigging, and has said it has received conditional immunity from
some authorities for cooperating in their probes.
A UBS spokeswoman told Reuters that the bank was in the
midst of discussions with authorities in the United States and
Britain in connection with Libor investigations and has been
cooperating fully with the regulatory and enforcement
authorities, but gave no further details.
Christopher Hamilton, spokesman for Britain's Financial
Services Authority, declined to comment beyond confirming the
already established fact that the FSA is investigating UBS.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the U.S.
Justice Department, investigating the Libor matter in the United
States, could not immediately be reached for comment.
Other banks are also anxious to draw a line under the probe,
which is well into its second year. British bank RBS said last
month it hopes to reach a settlement on its part in the
rate-rigging scandal - likely to result in fines for the bank -
and expects to start talks soon.
Morgan Stanley estimated that 11 global banks linked to the
Libor scandal could face $14 billion in regulatory and legal
settlement costs through 2014.
The reliability of the London interbank offered rate, or
Libor, has been cast into doubt by the rate manipulation
accusations. Libor is intended to measure the rate at which
banks lend to one another and is used as a benchmark for $300
trillion of contracts and loans across the world.
Switzerland is also investigating 12 U.S., European and
Japanese banks suspected of conspiring to manipulate interbank
lending rates. They include Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, HSBC
Holdings and RBS.
"In Switzerland we are still investigating the case. We are
in contact with other authorities," said Competition Commission
official Olivier Schaller, but provided no further details.
FINMA spokesman Tobias Lux said the Swiss regulator was
making ongoing efforts to clarify the issue, but declined to
comment further.
(Additional reporting by Sakthi Prasad)
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