UBS has recently suspended a group of its most senior traders in connection with an international probe into possible manipulation of interbank borrowing rates. This is the latest controversy to hit the Swiss bank since the financial crisis.
Regulators in North America, Europe and Japan have all been investigating whether traders at U.S. and European banks conspired to influence the London interbank offered rate, or Libor, as well as additional benchmark lending rates.
More than a dozen traders have been fired, suspended or placed on administrative leave in the past couple weeks from banks including UBS, Royal Bank of Scotland, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Deutsche Bank.
Yvan Ducrot, the co-head of UBS’s rates business, and Holger Seger, the global head of short-term interest rates trading, are among a group of Zurich-based traders who have been suspended, according to sources close to the investigation.
As the probe gathers pace, national enforcement agencies have begun to reveal additional information about their investigation into the setting of Libor rates, as well as their investigation into hedge funds that place big bets on movements in Libor and other key borrowing rates.
Read more about the scandal, and UBS’ involvement.