Broking firm headed by ex-Tory treasurer Michael Spencer is in talks to pay roughly £70m in Libor fines
ICAP, the interdealer broker headed by a former Conservative Party treasurer, is in talks about a settlement over its role in the global Libor rate-rigging scandal that would involve it paying about £70m to regulators in London and New York. Sky News can reveal that ICAP is discussing with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) a deal that would require it to pay in the region of £20m to the UK regulator, while it would pay approximately £50m collectively to the US Department of Justice (DoJ) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in the US. An announcement could come within the next ten days, although the numbers are not yet finalised and could yet change before a deal is announced, which is expected to be made by early October. One insider said on Monday that ICAP, which is run by Michael Spencer, one of the City's wealthiest men, was closer to finalising a settlement with the FCA than with the US regulators.
The civil settlement will be an embarrassment to Mr Spencer, who has consistently sought to downplay the extent of ICAP's involvement in the manipulation of Libor. However, a deal costing the interdealer broker in the region of £70m would not be financially material to ICAP and would be only marginally higher than the projections of City analysts. It would also be a relatively modest sum when viewed in the context of the fines imposed on the other financial institutions which have settled with regulators over Libor......Read more here
The Libor rate is used to set trillions of dollars of financial contracts, including many car loans and mortgages, as well as complex financial transactions around the world. Regulators have been investigating Libor manipulation since 2012 in the wake of Barclays' £290m ($454m) fine by US and UK authorities. A string of international banks have been implicated in the affair, and several criminal charges have been brought against traders......Read more here