UBS to Pay Over $500 Million in Fines for Manipulating Currencies and Libor
Chad Bray, 08 March 2021
The Swiss bank UBS said on Wednesday that it would pay more than $500 million in fines to the authorities in the United States for its role in the manipulation of currency markets and benchmark interest rates.
UBS said it would not face a criminal charge over currency misconduct but would be required to separately plead guilty to a criminal charge for its prior conduct over the manipulation of the interest rates, including the London interbank offered rate, or Libor, after the Justice Department tore up a 2012 nonprosecution agreement.
The agreement with UBS resolves a series of investigations by the Justice Department and other authorities in the United States, including banking regulators in Connecticut, into manipulation of currencies.
The Justice Department is expected to soon announce additional agreements with Barclays, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and the Royal Bank of Scotland, in which those banks will collectively pay several billion dollars in penalties and plead guilty to criminal antitrust violations for rigging the price of currencies.
