Deutsche Bank has been handed a fine of £227 million by UK regulator the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) over it roles in Libor and Euribor scandals.
The fines are the largest yet issued by the FCA over the revelations that some banks had deliberately submitted misleading reports for these key financial benchmarks. The bank was also fined a total of over $2 billion by US regulators for its role in manipulating financial benchmarks.
One division of Deutsche Bank was decribed by the FCA as having a “culture of generating profits without proper regard to the integrity of the market.” It added that the seriousness of its breaches are the reason for the record fine.
Georgina Philippou, acting director of enforcement and oversight at the FCA, said: “This wasn’t limited to a few individuals but, on certain desks, it appeared deeply ingrained.
“Deutsche Bank’s failings were compounded by them repeatedly misleading us. The bank took far too long to produce vital documents and it moved far too slowly to fix relevant systems and controls.”
The case covers 29 individuals at Deutsche Bank covering its business not just in London but Frankfurt, Tokyo and New York. These individuals manipulated submissions for multiple currency benchmarks at various times between 2005 and 2010.
The fine would have been even larger, £324 million, but the firm qualified for a 30% discount on its fine despite its uncooperative approach to the regulator.
According to the FCA, the firm mislead it about its ability to provide reports previously submitted to German regulator BaFin, provided false attestation that its systems and controls in relation to Libor were adequate, and it failed to provide timely and accurate information to the regulator.
In the US, the Commodities Futures Trading Commission fined Deutsche Bank $800 million, the US Department of Justice fined it $775 million and it also received a $600 million fine from the New York Department of Financial Services.