Deutsche Bank Close To Over $1.5B Settlement In Libor Probe

Deutsche Bank AG is close to agreeing on a settlement worth over $1.5 billion involving the German bank’s alleged role in manipulating interest rates, according to media reports published Thursday.

Sources familiar with the investigation told Bloomberg that Germany’s biggest bank is expected to finalize the terms of the settlement by end of the month. Deutsche Bank Group Services, a subsidiary of the bank based out of the U.K., is expected to plead guilty, sources told USA Today.

The exceptionally high settlement is reportedly due to demands from New York’s financial regulator, which is working along with British and U.S. regulators to probe evidence which allegedly shows that Deutsche Bank traders manipulated the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor). Libor is set by London branches of major banks, and is used to determine rates on loans, credit cards and other financial instruments worth trillions of dollars.

The bank said on Thursday it would “work with the authorities that are reviewing interbank offered rates matters," the New York Times reported.

Several other banks have been probed in connection to the Libor-rigging scandal.

The current financial penalty being negotiated with Deutsche Bank is said to be even higher than the previous highest penalty of $1.5 billion, imposed on UBS Group AG in 2012. Rabobank Groep of the Netherlands, Lloyds Banking Group Plc and Royal Bank of Scotland Plc have also reached settlements in the Libor case.

Deutsche Bank has already paid a 725-million euro ($769 million) fine to the European Commission for allegedly rigging yen Libor rates as well as the Euro Interbank Offered Rate (Euribor).

The Libor probe is among several other inquiries around the world into the role banks may have played in fixing benchmarks, including foreign exchange rates and precious metals prices.