According to the UK Financial Services Authority (FSA), Barclays’ misconduct included making submissions which formed part of the LIBOR and EURIBOR setting process that took into account requests from Barclays’ interest rate derivatives traders, influence the EURIBOR submissions of other banks and reducing its LIBOR submissions during the financial crisis.
The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) chairman Gary Gensler said, "Banks must not attempt to influence LIBOR or other indices based upon concerns about their reputation or the profitability of their trading positions."
The CFTC has imposed a penalty of $200m and as part of an agreement with the US Department of Justice (DOJ), Barclays admitted to its misconduct and agreed to pay a penalty of $160m, while FSA fined £59.5m ($91m).
Barclays has also been ordered to cease and desist from further violations and take specified steps to ensure the integrity and reliability of its LIBOR and Euribor submissions and improve related internal controls.
The regulators said that the Libor rate is widely used in the US, the UK and other nations to impact large volumes of swaps and futures contracts, commercial and personal consumer loans, home mortgages and other transactions.