Barclays pays regulators after admitting its staff skewed submissions to LIBOR, the benchmark behind trillions in loans and derivatives. Banks pay billions in fines and LIBOR is phased out by 2023.
Contested history
Consensus: Traders at many banks pushed rate submissions to benefit their positions, and banks lowballed rates during the 2008 crisis; regulators fined banks billions.
Traders manipulated rates for trading profitEstablished
Regulators' orders quote traders' messages asking submitters for favorable rates.
Central banks encouraged lowballing in the crisisDebated
A 2008 Bank of England call and later recordings suggest official pressure; the Bank denied instructing banks.
The individual traders were rightly convictedDebated
A US appeals court overturned two convictions in 2022, and the UK Supreme Court quashed two more in 2025 over flawed jury directions.