DoJ declined to prosecute Citigroup on LIBOR rigging

11th May 2015 14:07

The Department of Justice (DoJ) declined to prosecute on charges that it tried to rig the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR), Citigroup said in a quarterly filing with the US stock market regulator, the SEC.Shares in the lender were lower by 0.30% to trade at $53.86 as of 14:06 London time, before the opening bell on Wall Street.That followed reports that the DoJ and the UK's FCA, among other regulators, could announce a settlement with five of the world's largest banks, including JP Morgan Chase, Royal Bank of Scotland, UBS and Barclays as soon as Wednesday, according to reports.However, this time around Barclays was the only one expected to pay a fine to the FCA as the other lenders had been a part of an earlier settlement between the six banks, the CFA, the Commodities and Futures Trading Commission and Swiss authorities.JP Morgan, RBS and Citigroup were all expected to pay as much as $1bn each to the DoJ. All three banks' subsidiaries and Barclays were expected to plead guilty. Sources familiar with the matter told the Financial Times an announcement from the DoJ was expected on Wednesday but the timing might slip if the final negotiations were protracted.To participate in this week's settlement Barclays agreed with the New York Department of Financial Services (DFS) that its investigation into the algorithm used by the bank in its FX trading platform would not be included in any agreement.