UBS close to deal over Libor scandal

UBS is expected to pay more than £279m to settle claims some of its employees submitted false Libor rates, the New York Times reported earlier.

Barclays was fined $453m in June for manipulating Libor benchmark interest rates, and remains the only bank to settle in the investigation, which led to the resignation of the bank’s chairman and chief executive.

US and UK regulators, which released their settlements with Barclays at the same time, are working together on the UBS investigation and could release an agreement by the end of the year, although the timing could slip into next year.

The reliability of the London Interbank Offered Rate, or Libor, has been cast into doubt by the rate manipulation accusations. Libor is intended to measure the rate at which banks lend to one another and is used as a benchmark for $300 trillion of contracts and loans across the world.

UBS was the first bank globally to report suspected rate rigging, and has said it has received conditional immunity from some authorities for cooperating in their probes.

A UBS spokeswoman said the bank was in the midst of discussions with authorities in the US and Britain in connection with Libor investigations and has been cooperating fully with the regulatory and enforcement authorities, but gave no further details.