Lloyds Bank dismisses 8 staff after rate rigging probe

[September 29, 2014]  LONDON (Reuters) - Lloyds Banking Group said on Monday it had dismissed eight staff following an investigation into the submission of benchmark interest rates after it was fined in July by American and British regulators.

Lloyds, which is 25 percent owned by the British government, said around 3 million pounds ($4.9 million) in unpaid bonuses had been forfeited as a result of the action.

The bank was fined $370 million in July for its part in the attempted manipulation of the London interbank offered rate (Libor) and for attempting to fix so-called "repo" rates to reduce fees for a taxpayer-backed scheme set up by the Bank of England to support British banks during the financial crisis.

Bank of England Governor Mark Carney has said the attempted manipulation could lead to criminal action against those involved.
 

Lloyds said it had undertaken disciplinary action immediately after the settlements were announced. It said it was unable to take disciplinary action against a number of individuals who had already left the group prior to the settlements. However, the bank passed on its findings to Britain's Financial Conduct Authority and other regulators.

"Having now taken disciplinary action against those individuals responsible for the totally unacceptable behavior identified by the regulators' investigations, the board and the group's management team are committed to preventing this type of behavior happening again," Lloyds Chief Executive Antonio Horta-Osorio said in a statement.

(1 US dollar = 0.6163 British pound)

(Reporting by Matt Scuffham; Editing by Steve Slater)

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