EU: LIBOR penalties imposed today smash record

The European Commission announced Wednesday it has imposed a record-setting fine of $2.3 billion on some of the world’s largest banks for their role in the LIBOR rigging conspiracy.

Deutsche Bank was hit hardest with a $985.9 million fine.

Societe Generale, Royal Bank of Scotland, JPMorgan, Citigroup and RP Martin were also fined.

In a statement, European Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said, “What is shocking about the LIBOR and Euribor scandals is not only the manipulation of benchmarks, which is being tackled by financial regulators worldwide, but also the collusion between banks who are supposed to be competing with each other.”

The LIBOR scandal has plagued the world’s largest banks as authorities around the globe have now issued nearly $6 billion in fines for the manipulation of interest rate setting benchmarks.

Reports say the European Commission may have even more fines to dish out as it pursues HSBC, Credit Agricole and others on related charges.

The Commission’s fine marks a new record for the authority, which beat out last year’s $2 billion in fines imposed upon tech manufacturers found to have fixed LCD television prices.

Full Content: CNN

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