Worldwide investigations into manipulations of the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) have resulted in settlements between regulators and banks with fines so far exceeding USD 6 billion in total. After a number of banks have admitted in deals struck with regulators to manipulating LIBOR by misreporting borrowing rates, numerous private claimants have followed suit by pursuing individual and class actions. At the same time, evidence gathered by regulators has spurred further investigations into other financial benchmarks, in particular in the foreign exchange market where purported misconduct is expected to trigger further multibillion-dollar fines and civil litigation.

By Thomas Werlen/Jonas Hertner (Reference: CapLaw-2014-14)