UBS is being investigated over possible Libor manipulation
Baku, March 16 (AZERTAC). UBS said Tuesday that United States and Japanese regulators were investigating whether the Swiss bank had tried to manipulate a benchmark used to set interest rates around the world.
The bank, based in Zurich, said it had been subpoenaed by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Justice Department in connection with an investigation into whether the bank had tried improperly to influence the London Interbank Offered Rate, or Libor.
UBS said that the Financial Supervisory Agency in Japan was pursuing a similar line of inquiry and had ordered the bank to provide information. Libor is a measure of how much banks charge each other for loans, and is a hugely important barometer of market interest rates and the health of the financial system. Fluctuations in Libor affect the payments made by millions of homeowners and other borrowers.
A UBS spokesman, who said he was not authorized to be quoted by name, said the bank had nothing to add beyond a one-paragraph disclosure in the annual report. “UBS is conducting an internal review and is cooperating with the investigations,” the bank said. Spokesmen for the S.E.C. and Justice Department did not comment. The British Bankers` Association, which sets Libor rates, said that it observed “rigorous standards” and that its calculations were “fully transparent.”
The news of the investigation was buried in UBS’s 430-page annual report, on Tuesday, the same day that Deutsche Bank issued its yearly report to shareholders. Banks in Europe and the United States have been under regulatory pressure to set up bonus programs that reward long-term prudence rather than risk-taking and short-term payoffs. Banks faced severe criticism after the financial crisis, when some executives continued to receive large bonuses even as shareholders suffered huge losses.
In its annual report, Deutsche Bank also listed its exposure to government debt from the so-called peripheral countries in Europe, whose public finances have shaken the integrity of the euro. The bank said its net credit to governments in Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain was 12.1 billion euros, with Italy accounting for 8 billion euros of that amount.
Other news in this section
