(COLUMBUS, Ohio)—Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine, along with 43 other attorneys general, today announced a $100 million settlement with Barclays Bank PLC and Barclays Capital Inc. for fraudulent and anticompetitive conduct involving the manipulation of the London interbank offered rate, or Libor, a benchmark interest rate that has a widespread impact on global markets and consumers.
Barclays has agreed to pay $100 million, of which about $93 million will be used to reimburse government and nonprofit organizations that had Libor-linked swaps and other investment contracts with Barclays and that were harmed by the activity.
Several Ohio entities, such as pension funds and foundations, are expected to qualify. Organizations will be notified and will have the opportunity to opt in if they are eligible to receive funds from the settlement.
A multistate investigation revealed that Barclays had manipulated Libor during the financial crisis period of 2007-2008 by understating the interest rates it would need to pay to borrow money in order to avoid the appearance that Barclays was in financial difficulty and would need to pay a higher rate than some of its peers.
The investigation also determined that at various times from 2005 to 2007 and continuing at least into 2009, Barclays’ traders asked Barclays’ Libor submitters to change their Libor settings in order to benefit their trading positions, a request the submitters often agreed to. At times, the requests came from traders outside the bank, and Barclays traders agreed to pass them along to Barclays’ submitters, thus colluding with other banks.
Government entities and not-for-profit organizations were defrauded when they entered into swaps and other investment instruments with Barclays without knowing that Barclays and other banks on the U.S. dollar-Libor-setting panel were manipulating Libor and colluding with other banks to do so.
Barclays is the first of several U.S. dollar-Libor-setting panel banks under investigation by the state attorneys general to resolve the claims against it, and Barclays has cooperated fully from the outset.
Participating in the Barclays settlement are the attorneys general of Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
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Documents
Settlement (PDF)
Media Contacts
Dan Tierney: 614-466-3840
Kate Hanson: 614-466-3840