Barclays Bank sign
© AP Photo/ Lefteris Pitarakis
Barclays Bank reached a $100 million settlement with 44 US states for its role in rigging the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR), Attorney General of the State of New York Eric Schneiderman announced in a press release on Monday.

"There has to be one set of rules for everyone, no matter how rich or how powerful, and that includes big banks and other financial institutions that engage in fraud or impair the fair functioning of financial markets," Schneiderman stated in the release.


Comment: No jail sentences? Of course not.


The LIBOR benchmark interest rate is used to set other interest rates impacting trillions of dollars of investments worldwide.

New York investigators found that from 2007 through 2009, during the financial crisis, Barclays instructed other institutions to fabricate their LIBOR submissions. The false submissions benefit Barclays by keeping its borrowing rates low during the crisis.

Additional investigations into other US banks connected to the LIBOR manipulation are still ongoing, Schneiderman said.

Barclays is among a handful of other banks hit with major criminal fines by the US government in connection with the LIBOR scandal. Citigroup, JP Morgan, UBS and the Royal Bank of Scotland have all been compelled to settle or pay criminal fines related to the rate-rigging.