Rabobank faces US$440m-plus fine over rate-rigging
Rabobank, the second-biggest Dutch lender, was next in line to reach a settlement with the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the Department of Justice, and Britain's Financial Services Authority over claims it tried to manipulate benchmark interest rates, said four people with knowledge of the probe who asked not to be identified because the talks were private.
Rabobank faces a fine of more than US$440 million for Libor rigging as global regulators seek to increase the US$2.5 billion in penalties already levied in the rate-manipulation scandal.
The penalty, which may come as soon as May, is likely to be between the £290 million (HK$3.4 billion) Barclays paid in June and the US$612 million Royal Bank of Scotland paid this month, one of the people said.
Rabobank, formed in 1898 as a co-operative to lend to Dutch farmers, is the country's only contributor to the London interbank offered rate (Libor), the benchmark for more than US$300 trillion of securities.
Barclays, UBS, and RBS have been fined more than US$2.5 billion following a global probe into Libor manipulation.
Traders rigged the benchmark to profit from bets on derivatives, while banks sought to submit artificially low rates to appear financially healthier than they were, according to regulators.