French banks Societe Generale SA (GLE.FR) and Credit Agricole SA (ACA.FR) said Thursday they are cooperating with authorities investigating the alleged manipulation of interbank lending benchmarks, but that they haven't been accused of any wrong-doing.
Credit Agricole said that it only joined the panel of the London interbank offered rate, or Libor, in November 2010, long after the period when some banks' employees allegedly manipulated its rates.
Libor and its European equivalent, Euribor, are at the center of one of the biggest financial scandals in recent years, as investigators in the U.S. and Europe focus on possible criminal acts at a number of the world's biggest banks.
The Financial Times reported Thursday, without naming sources, that regulators were currently focusing attention on Credit Agricole, HSBC Holdings PLC (HBC), Deutsche Bank AG (DB) and Societe Generale SA (GLE.FR).
Deutsche Bank and HSBC declined to comment.
Regulators have not yet detailed which banks are under investigation in the global probe. However, several banks have said in securities filings that they are helping regulators with their enquiries.
Credit Agricole said in a statement: "[The bank] has responded to requests for information from various authorities as it always does," and that it hasn't been accused of any wrong-doing.
The Paris-based lender added that it had only been a contributor to the U.S. dollar Libor rate since February 2011.
In a separate statement, Societe Generale said: "To this day, there has been no allegation of wrong-doing against the bank from regulators."
The scandal deepened in recent weeks when British financial giant Barclays PLC (BCS) agreed to pay $450 million to settle accusations by U.S. and U.K. authorities that it had attempted to manipulate Libor rates. Libor is composed of daily submissions from a group of leading banks that report their estimated cost of borrowing from one another.
The settlement led to the resignations of Barclays' chairman Marcus Agius, chief executive Robert Diamond, and chief operating officer Jerry del Missier.
The matter quickly became a political issue, with British Prime Minister David Cameron announcing plans for a full parliamentary committee of inquiry into the banking scandal.
The U.K.'s Serious Fraud Office also said it would weigh criminal prosecution against those accused of attempting to rig interbank lending rates.
-Write to Noemie Bisserbe at noemie.bisserbe@dowjones.com
(Max Colchester and Eyk Henning contributed to this report.)
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