UBS Japan pays US $100m in Libor rate-fixing case

A federal judge Wednesday signed off on a $100 million fine on UBS's Japan subsidiary, part of a larger global crackdown on the Swiss banking giant in the Libor rate-rigging scandal. US District Judge Robert Chatigny sentenced UBS Securities Japan Co. Ltd. to a $100 million fine in which it also admitted criminal conduct. The fine is part of a $1.5 billion settlement agreed by parent UBS last December with Swiss, British and US regulators. The Japan scheme dated from September 2006, when a senior trader at UBS's Tokyo office "orchestrated a sustained, wide-ranging and systemic scheme" to move Yen Libor in a direction favorable to the trader's positions, the Justice Department said in a news release. Libor, which stands for the London Interbank Offered Rate, is a leading benchmark used in financial transactions worldwide. UBS Japan made false and misleading Libor submissions to the British Bankers Association, which publishes Libor, and caused other market participants to make false Libor submissions to the BBS, the Justice Department said. Regulators from the US, Britain and Switzerland last December unveiled a $1.5 billion settlement with parent company UBS involving penalties and disgorgement to a number of regulators.