Lloyds Banking Group Plc. has reached an agreement with the US and UK regulators to pay fines totaling $370 million for its part in a global interest rate rigging scandal. Particularly, Lloyds was charged for the attempted manipulation of the London interbank offered rate, or Libor, Bloomberg said. The bank admits misconduct of some of its employees. Lloyds said in a statement the group condemns the actions of the individuals responsible for wrongdoing, which it regards as totally unacceptable. Currently, no less than ten central banks of different countries are investigating over 20 financial institutions for potential scheming with Libor. The banks that settled allegations of manipulating Libor include Barclays, UBS, Royal Bank of Scotland, ICAP, and Rabobank. The Accumulative amount of fines totals more than $6 billion. Libor is a key benchmark that underpins many financial products around the world. According to Thomson Reuters, $500 trillion worth of financial instruments, from derivatives to mortgages, depend on Libor.
