Lloyds Banking Group’s fine for rigging Libor was the kind of “appalling behaviour” that triggered the creation of the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards he previously chaired, the chairman of the influential Treasury Select Committee said.
Yesterday (28 July) the Financial Conduct Authority fined Lloyds Bank and Bank of Scotland, both part of Lloyds Banking Group, £105m for serious misconduct relating to Libor, the Special Liquidity Scheme and the Repo Rate benchmark.
Andrew Tyrie said: “One of the central recommendations of the commission was to ensure that individuals carry responsibility for their decisions and behaviour, and that they will be held accountable when they rig markets.
“This settlement is part of the much needed clean-up operation. Implementing the commission’s proposals will be another.”
Of the total amount, £70m relates to attempts to manipulate the fees payable to the Bank of England for the firms’ participation in the SLS, a government scheme designed to support British banks during the financial crisis.
Altogether, Lloyds Banking Group said it reached settlements totalling £218m to resolve issues around Libor and the Repo Rate with UK and US federal authorities.
António Horta-Osório, chief executive of Lloyds Banking Group, called the behaviours “absolutely unacceptable” and added that the board and management team have taken “vigorous action over the past three years to prevent this kind of behaviour, through closing or reducing our legacy investment banking activities.”
