Germany’s Deutsche Bank has been fined a record $2.5bn (£1.7bn) by UK and US regulators for rigging Libor and Euribor, ordered to fire seven employees and accused of being obstructive towards regulators in their investigations.
The bank has been fined $2.1bn by US regulators, and £227m by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
The penalties on Germany’s largest bank also involve a guilty plea to the Department of Justice (DoJ) in the US and a deferred prosecution agreement.
The regulators released a cache of emails, electronic messages and phone calls showing the attempts to move the rate used to price £3.5tn of financial contracts.
One trader, on learning a rate was unchanged, sent a message saying: “Oh bullshit…..strap on a pair and jack up the 3M (month). Hahahahaha.”
The bank said it “deeply regrets” the matter. It said in a statement that it had “disciplined or dismissed individuals” involved and tightened governance controls.
However, US regulators have demanded the dismissal of a further seven senior individuals still employed.
Georgina Philippou, the FCA’s acting director of enforcement and market oversight, said in a statement: “This case stands out for the seriousness and duration of the breaches by Deutsche Bank – something reflected in the size of today’s fine.
“One division at Deutsche Bank had a culture of generating profits without proper regard to the integrity of the market. This wasn’t limited to a few individuals but, on certain desks, it appeared deeply ingrained.
“Deutsche Bank’s failings were compounded by them repeatedly misleading us. The bank took far too long to produce vital documents and it moved far too slowly to fix relevant systems and controls.”
The FCA said that in one instance, Deutsche in error destroyed 482 tapes of telephone calls that should have been kept. “Deutsche Bank also provided inaccurate information to the regulator about whether other records existed,” the FCA said.
The misconduct involved at least 29 Deutsche Bank individuals, including managers and traders, mainly based in London but also in Frankfurt, Tokyo and New York. It took place between 2005 and 2009.
Libor and Euribor are benchmark interest rates, influencing the setting of other rates. They are used as a barometer to measure the health of the banking system and as a gauge of market expectation for future central bank interest rates.