Deutsche Bank fined record $2.5 billion in rate rigging inquiry

Source: Reuters

U.S. and British regulators fined Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE) $2.5 billion and its British subsidiary pleaded guilty to criminal wire fraud on Thursday as it became the eighth financial group to settle allegations of rigging interest rate benchmarks.

The record penalty in a seven-year investigation that has shredded the banking industry's reputation takes the total fines imposed on some of the world's top financial institutions to more than $8.5 billion. Twenty-one traders and brokers face criminal charges.

U.S. regulators fined Germany's largest bank $2.175 billion and British watchdogs imposed a 227 million pound ($341 million) penalty for its role in a scam to manipulate the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor) and its Euribor cousin - together benchmarks for hundreds of trillions of dollars of financial products and loans worldwide.

Britain's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said the misconduct involved at least 29 Deutsche Bank individuals including managers, traders and submitters based mainly in London but also in Frankfurt, Tokyo and New York.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/23/us-deutschebank-libor-settlement-idUSKBN0NE12U20150423