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RBS In "Late-Stage" Talks With US Over LIBOR
Natasha Taghavi
6 February 2013
The Royal Bank of Scotland has confirmed that it is in “late-stage” settlement discussions with US authorities over the recent LIBOR allegations. Although the settlements are yet to be agreed, RBS expects they will include the payment of significant penalties as well as certain other sanctions, the firm said in a statement. In connection with the LIBOR allegations, it has been widely reported in the media that RBS’s chief executive of market and international banking, John Hourican, will resign, forfeiting a bonus worth £4 million (around $6 million). However, on this development the bank declined to comment when contacted by this publication. If the US settlement does go ahead, RBS could be the third bank to settle allegations related to the LIBOR-rigging affair with US and UK authorities. In June of last year, UK-listed Barclays agreed to pay £290 million to settle such claims, and its high-profile chief executive Bob Diamond, among other senior figures, resigned. More recently, last month UBS agreed to pay around SFr1.4 billion (around $1.53 billion) in fines and related payments to the US, Swiss and UK authorities to settle investigations that Switzerland’s largest bank manipulated interbank interest rates, becoming the second major bank after Barclays to be punished.