Lloyds bank fined £218m over Libor rigging

Britain's Lloyds Banking Group is to pay £218 million ($370 million, 276 million euros) in fines to British and US regulators for attempting to rig inter-bank lending rates, the bank said Monday.
"LBG announces that it has reached settlements totalling £218 million to resolve with UK and US federal authorities legacy issues regarding the manipulation several years ago of group companies' submissions to the British Bankers' Association (BBA) London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) and Sterling Repo Rate," it said in a brief statement.
"The group condemns the actions of the individuals responsible for the conduct in question, which it regards as totally unacceptable and unrepresentative of the cultural changes that the group has implemented.
"The actions will be deplored by all employees," added the lender, which is 25-percent state-owned after a government bailout at the height of the global financial crisis.
The Libor is a flagship instrument used all over the world, affecting what banks, businesses and individuals pay to borrow money.
The Libor scandal erupted two years ago when British bank Barclays was fined £290 million by British and US regulators for attempted manipulation of Libor and Euribor interbank rates between 2005 and 2009. Euribor is the eurozone equivalent of Libor.