By Max Colchester
LONDON-- Barclays PLC on Wednesday was fined $115 million by a
U.S. regulator for allegedly attempting to manipulate a major
benchmark interest rate.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission said in a statement
that Barclays's U.S. traders attempted to manipulate the U.S.
dollar iteration of ISDAfix, or the International Swaps and
Derivatives Association Fix, between 2007 and 2012. The ISDAfix
benchmark is widely used in setting payout rates on pension funds
and determining the cost of real-estate loans.
A group of other financial institutions including interdealer
broker ICAP PLC have said they are under investigation for alleged
manipulation of the ISDAfix rate.
In a statement the CFTC said that Barclays, one of the panel
banks which submitted rates that determined the daily U.S. ISDAfix
rate, tried to artificially move the rate during the window when it
is set. The bank at the time didn't have any internal controls to
regulate how the submission should be made during the period.
Barclays confirmed the fine and said in a statement that the
misconduct was "wholly incompatible with Barclays's purpose."
The fine comes as Barclays agreed to pay GBP1.53 billion ($2.37
billion) to a series of U.S. and U.K. regulators to resolve charges
that it manipulated foreign-exchange rates. In a statement the bank
said the fines would be covered by existing provisions of GBP2.05
billion.
In 2012 Barclays had entered into a nonprosecution agreement
with the Justice Department after trying to rig the Libor benchmark
rate. The DOJ said that despite the trying to manipulate other
rates Barclays didn't breach its nonprosecution agreement. Barclays
said this was because of he significant "cultural and compliance
changes" that the bank had put in place.
Write to Max Colchester at max.colchester@wsj.com
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