ROYAL BANK ADS (RBS)

[mlkrborn]

RBS settled with fine, 6 dismissals. $10s today.
RBS Pays $612.6M in Fines to US, UK Regulators
Last update: 2/6/2013 8:17:14 AM
By Max Colchester
LONDON--Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC (RBS) said Wednesday that it paid $612.6 million in fines to U.S. and U.K. regulators over allegations that the bank sought to rig interbank lending rates, the third lender to be punished in a global probe into rate fixing.
In a statement, RBS said that it settled with the U.K. Financial Services Authority, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the U.S Department of Justice around allegations that traders attempted to manipulate a series of benchmark interest rates, including the London Interbank Offered Rate, or Libor.
The bank agreed to pay of GBP87.5 million to the FSA, $325 million to the CFTC and $150 million to the DoJ to resolve the investigations.
As part of the agreement with the Department of Justice, RBS entered into a Deferred Prosecution Agreement in relation to one count of wire fraud and one count for an antitrust violation.
RBS said that wrongdoing was predominantly linked to 21 employees. All these employees have either left the bank or been disciplined, the bank said.
RBS also said that investment banking chief John Hourican would leave the bank, despite having no role in the alleged rigging of rates. None of the regulators concluded that RBS, as a company, had engaged in any deliberate misconduct, the bank added. RBS said that there were no findings to suggest that senior management at the bank looked to artificially lower submissions.
The findings broadly centered on RBS's setting of the yen, Swiss franc and U.S. dollar submission, RBS said.
"The RBS Board acknowledges that there were serious shortcomings in our systems and controls and also in the integrity of a small group of our employees," RBS Chairman Philip Hampton said in a statement. "This is a sad day for RBS, but also an important one in continuing to put right the mistakes of the past."
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 06, 2013 08:43 ET (13:43 GMT