The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has imposed a monetary penalty of £105m against Lloyds Bank (Lloyds) and Bank of Scotland (BoS), for serious misconduct relating to the Special Liquidity Scheme (SLS), the Repo Rate benchmark and the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR).
Lloyds was also fined $105m by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission and $86m fine by the US Department of Justice (DoJ) for attempting to fix the Libor rate for yen, sterling and the US dollar.
As part of the settlement with the DoJ, the LBG has also entered into a two-year Deferred Prosecution Agreement in relation to one count of wire fraud relating to the setting of LIBOR.
The British banking giant accepted that the manipulation of submissions covered by the settlements took place between May 2006 and 2009.
The bank further said all the individuals involved have either left the group, been suspended or are subject to disciplinary proceedings.
Commenting on the settlement, Lloyds Banking Group chairman Lord Blackwell said: "The Board regards the actions of these individuals between 2006 and 2009 as completely unacceptable.
"Their behaviour involved a gross breach of trust and we condemn it without reservation. I have written to the Governor of the Bank of England to make clear we have a common view on this.
"I am also convinced that it is entirely unrepresentative of the vast majority of our staff who are committed to delivering outstanding service and doing the right thing for customers, recognising that trust is at the core of our business."
The 25% UK-taxpayer owned lender joins several other banks to settle allegations or pay fines for alleged rigging of Libor, and other benchmark rates.
Lloyds is one of the banks whose employees are alleged to have worked with brokers who were helping a former UBS and Citigroup trader, Tom Hayes, manipulate rates, according to people familiar with the investigation, as reported earlier by The Wall Street Journal.
Image: Lloyds is set to cut 645 jobs and close Warrington call centre as part of the 2011strategic review. Photo: courtesy of Pit-yacker.
