Senior official from British bank admits bank rate fixing plot
A senior banker from a leading British bank has pleaded guilty to trying to rig the interbank lending rate Libor.
Neither the individual nor the bank can be named due to reporting restrictions.
The guilty plea to a charge of conspiracy to defraud was entered at Southwark Crown Court in London on Friday and can be reported now following a ruling from the court.
It follows a Serious Fraud Office (SFO) investigation into the alleged rigging of Libor, the benchmark interbank lending rate.
It is the first conviction of an individual in the UK in relation to Libor rigging.
A number of others have been charged on separate allegations in relation to the practice.
The London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor) is used for hundreds of trillions of loans and transactions around the world, from complex derivatives to mortgages.
It is a benchmark that indicates the interest rate that banks charge when lending to each other.
In recent years banks have paid out billions in penalties to international regulators to settle allegations of Libor fixing.
In a statement Serious Fraud Office said: "A senior banker from a leading British bank pleaded guilty at Southwark Crown Court on October 3 2014 to conspiracy to defraud in connection with manipulating Libor. This arises out of the Serious Fraud Office investigations into Libor manipulation.
“Further details cannot be given at this time for legal reasons.
“This is the first criminal conviction arising from the Serious Fraud Office’s Libor investigation. Eleven other individuals stand charged and await trial.
“The investigation into others continues.”
