Lloyds sacks 8 staff and claws back bonuses in rates inquiry

The Lloyds Banking Group said today that it had terminated the contracts of eight individuals and clawed back about £3 million in bonuses after its settlement of inquiries into the manipulation of global benchmark interest rates.

In July, Lloyds agreed to pay more than $380 million to British and US authorities to resolve investigations into the manipulation of rates, including one used to determine fees paid by Lloyds related to a £17 billion taxpayer-backed bailout during the financial crisis.

“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,” Antonio Horta-Osorio, the bank’s chief executive, said in a statement.

Lloyds said it was unable to take disciplinary action against a number of individuals who left the company before the settlements in the summer. In July, Lloyds, which is partly owned by the British government, admitted to criminal wrongdoing by some of its employees who sought to manipulate the London interbank offered rate, or Libor, and other global benchmark interest rates.

Sixteen individuals, including seven managers, were directly involved in or aware of the various forms of Libor manipulation, Britain's Financial Conduct Authority said at the time.

Lloyds served on several panels of banks that helped set Libor rates tied to the dollar, the yen and other currencies. As part of its resolution of the inquires, the bank said it would pay an additional £7.76 million to compensate the Bank of England for the manipulation of another, now defunct, benchmark rate, which was used to determine fees paid under an emergency funding program for financial institutions during the financial crisis.

Also in July, Lloyds agreed to enter into a so-called deferred prosecution agreement as part of its deal with the US justice department, which allows the bank to avoid criminal charges if it stays out of trouble for the next two years. "The board has been clear that it views the actions of those responsible for the misconduct referred to in the settlements as being completely unacceptable," Norman Blackwell, the bank's chairman, said in a statement today.

New York Times