According to an article published today on the Wall Street Journal,"authorities around the world accused Rabobank of participating in a widespread scheme to manipulate benchmark interest rates, reaching a roughly $1 billion settlement with the Dutch lender to resolve the allegations''.
''The settlement—with U.S., British, Dutch and Japanese regulators and prosecutors—makes Rabobank the fifth financial institution to resolve allegations that its employees tried to manipulate the London interbank offered rate, or Libor, and other benchmarks. The penalty is the second-largest to date, reflecting what authorities say is Rabobank's extensive role in attempted manipulation of rates that underpin trillions of dollars of financial contracts world-wide".
"As part of Tuesday's settlement, Rabobank entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the U.S. Justice Department—a black eye for a bank with major U.S. retail-banking operations, but less severe than a guilty plea that some other banks have entered in recent Libor cases".
