Charged with Conspiracy

12 U.S., European and Japanese banks are suspected of conspiring to manipulate interbank lending rates.

The Swiss Competition Commission (Comco) said it had received information about possible collusion between derivatives traders on the London Interbank Rate (Libor) and the Tokyo Interbank Rate (Tibor). "Derivatives traders working at a number of financial institutions may have underestimated interbank lending rates by coordinating their activities, thereby using the benchmark rates (Libor or Tibor) to their advantage," Comco said in a statement.
Libor is a derivative of the interest rate reported by banks lending to each other and is used worldwide as a benchmark for setting new rates for derivatives and other financial products (estimated at $350 trillion). Small changes in interbank interest rates can have a big impact on the prime rate, Libor or Tibor.
Comco released a list of suspect banks: Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, HSBC Holdings, JP Morgan Chase & Co, Mizuho Financial Group Inc, Rabobank Groep NV, Royal Bank of Scotland Plc Societe Generale, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and UBS.
Antitrust agencies in the United States, the European Union and Britain have also begun to identify banks that deliberately understate interbank market rates in order to reduce borrowing costs and prevent investor panic during the banking crisis.

Based on foreign press for ForTrader.org