By Arno Schuetze, Edward Taylor and Philipp Halstrick
FRANKFURT, Jan 31 (Reuters) - Talks over an industry-wide
settlement for banks involved in the Libor rate-fixing scandal
have been informal, and are not advanced, Deutsche Bank co-chief
executive Anshu Jain said on Thursday.
Axel Weber, chairman of Swiss bank UBS, raised the
possibility of an industry-wide settlement for the rest of the
banks involved in the scandal at a meeting of top bankers in
Davos earlier this month, sources familiar with the matter told
Reuters.
UBS and Britain's Barclays have already reached settlements
with regulators.
"I can confirm there were unofficial discussions (in
Davos)," Jain said on the sidelines of a press conference,
adding the talks were very informal and not at a very advanced
stage.
Jain said that banks had different interests and it was
therefore unclear if any agreement would be reached.
He said an industry-wide settlement might help banks resolve
potential civil suits which could follow criminal and regulatory
investigations.
"A Libor settlement would make sense for civil suits," he
said.
U.S., British and other regulators are investigating more
than a dozen global banks over manipulating the London interbank
offered rate (Libor), a benchmark used for trillions of dollars
of financial instruments ranging from home loans to complex
derivative products.
For banks, a collective agreement would reduce the risk that
any individual bank will be singled out and face a particular
backlash. A group agreement is difficult to attain but has been
done in the past in the tobacco industry, for example.
The main obstacles facing a group settlement are likely to
be a hesitancy on the part of the investment banks to work
together in the fevered atmosphere surrounding the Libor
investigations and the large number of regulators involved in
investigating cases.
Deutsche Bank has increased its litigation reserves to 1.8
billion euros ($2.4 billion) from 800 million euros, some of
which is related to the Libor probe.
In addition, 2 billion euros of contingent liabilities
remain, the bank said, referring to possible losses over and
above existing legal provisions.
Money for lawsuits has so far only been set aside for
possible regulatory or criminal cases, but not for potential
civil suits.
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