Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Business
Shane Hickey and agencies

Deutsche Bank staff questioned as part of Libor investigation

Deutsche Bank was fined £1.6bn earlier this year in settlements with US and UK regulators, including a £227m penalty levied by the Financial Conduct Authority.
Deutsche Bank was fined £1.6bn earlier this year in settlements with US and UK regulators, including a £227m penalty levied by the Financial Conduct Authority. Photograph: Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters

Current and former Deutsche Bank staff have been questioned by the Serious Fraud Office in recent weeks in relation to the investigation into Libor rate-rigging.

Traders have been interviewed about the manipulation of the London interbank offered rate and its euro counterpart, Bloomberg has reported.

The interviews come shortly after the conviction of former UBS trader Tom Hayes, who was jailed this month for 14 years after being found guilty of eight charges of conspiracy to defraud.

Deutsche Bank was fined £1.6bn earlier this year in settlements with US and UK regulators, including a £227m penalty levied by the Financial Conduct Authority.

The bank has already fired seven employees over the scandal. Both the SFO and Deutsche Bank declined to comment on the latest in the Libor investigation.

Bloomberg reported that at least one banker was interviewed under caution, meaning any statements can be used against he or she in court.

The FCA said this year that parts of Deutsche Bank had a “deeply ingrained” culture of “generating profits without proper regard to the integrity of the market”. It said the bank’s failings had been compounded by it “repeatedly misleading” the regulator.

Banks have been fined billions of pounds over the manipulation of Libor, the benchmark interbank lending rate that is used as the basis for hundreds of trillions of dollars of loans and transactions around the world from complex derivatives to mortgages.

Earlier this month, former trader Hayes, from Fleet in Hampshire, was convicted after being accused of being the ringleader in a vast conspiracy to fix Libor between 2006 and 2010.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.