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Financial Conduct Authority's Martin Wheatley, managing Director of the FSA and Chief Executive-designate of the Financial Conduct Authority, delivers a speech on Libor in 2012.
Financial Conduct Authority’s Martin Wheatley, managing Director of the FSA and Chief Executive-designate of the Financial Conduct Authority, delivers a speech on Libor in 2012. Photograph: CARL COURT/AFP/Getty Images
Financial Conduct Authority’s Martin Wheatley, managing Director of the FSA and Chief Executive-designate of the Financial Conduct Authority, delivers a speech on Libor in 2012. Photograph: CARL COURT/AFP/Getty Images

Libor-rigging fines: a timeline

This article is more than 8 years old

Deutsche Bank has been fined a record $2.5bn for rigging Libor - here’s a list of other banks fined for rigging Libor rates

Barclays was the first bank to be fined in June 2012 when it received penalties of £290m - including a record £59.5m by the UK regulators. Traders were offered bottles of Bollinger champagne and quips of “always happy to help,” “for you, anything,” or “done … for you big boy”.

The record fine was quickly broken in December 2012 when Swiss bank UBS was fined £940m by regulators in the UK and US and accused of collusion and corrupt brokerage payments. One trader said: “I will fucking do one humongous deal with you ... whatever you want ... I’m a man of my word”.

In February 2013, the regulators found Royal Bank of Scotland had “abetted” Swiss bank UBS as it levied fines of £390m on the bailed out bank. “I’m like a whores’ drawers” one trader quipped.

Icap, the City dealer run by former Conservative party treasurer Michael Spencer, was fined £55m in September 2013 and three of its former employees charged with criminal offences in the United States.

Dutch bank Rabobank was fined £660m in October 2013 and its chairman Piet Moerland resigned earlier than planned. “Don’t worry mate – there’s bigger crooks in the market than us guys!” one of its Libor submitters said.

In May 2014 the broker RP Martin had its fine of £3.6m reduced to £630,000 to stop it collapsing.

Lloyds Banking Group was fined £226m in July 2014 when it became the first bank to be censured for deliberately reducing the fees it paid to the Bank of England for emergency funding during the 2008 banking crisis.

In April 2015, Germany’s Deutsche Bank was fined a record $2.5bn for rigging Libor, ordered to fire seven employees and accused of being obstructive towards regulators in their investigations.

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