Barclays Tumbles as Libor Fine Sparks Lawsuit Speculation
Barclays Plc (BARC), Britain’s second- largest bank by assets, slid the most in three years after its record fines yesterday for falsifying London interbank offered rate submissions sparked speculation lawsuits will follow.
The shares fell as much as 18 percent as U.K. lawmakers called on Chief Executive Officer Robert Diamond to resign. Barclays stock was down 28.7 pence to 167.4 pence at 12:55 p.m. in London. It was the biggest decline since March 2009.
The London-based bank was fined 290 million pounds ($451 million) yesterday by the U.K.’s Financial Services Authority, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and U.S. Department of Justice. The settlements are the first in an international investigation into whether banks tried to manipulate Libor.
Matthew Oakeshott, a member of the Liberal Democrat party who sits in Parliament’s upper House of Lords, said Diamond should resign. U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron said today Barclays has questions to answer about the Libor probes.
“We expect that the cost of lawsuits related to Libor manipulation will dwarf the fines imposed on Barclays,” said Sandy Chen, a banks analyst at Cenkos Securities Plc in London, who is “penciling in multi-year provisions that could run into the billions.”
Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc (RBS), Citigroup Inc., UBS AG, ICAP Plc (IAP), Lloyds Banking Group Plc and Deutsche Bank AG are among the other firms being probed as regulators worldwide investigate how Libor is set.
RBS shares slumped 13 percent, ICAP dropped 3.3 percent and Lloyds slid 7 percent.
-- With assistance from Kitty Donaldson and Gonzalo Vina in London. Editors: Keith Campbell, Jon Menon.
To contact the reporter on this story: Howard Mustoe in London at hmustoe@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Edward Evans at eevans3@bloomberg.net
Barclays
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A logo sits outside a Barclays Plc bank branch in London.
A logo sits outside a Barclays Plc bank branch in London. Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg
June 28 (Bloomberg) -- Sandy Chen, a banking analyst at Cenkos Securities Plc, talks about the potential impact of lawsuits arising from the global investigation into interest-rate manipulation. He speaks with Manus Cranny on Bloomberg Television's "Last Word." (Source: Bloomberg)
June 13 (Bloomberg) -- Barclays Plc Chief Executive Officer Robert Diamond talks about his company's business strategy and Europe's debt crisis. Diamond said the euro region is likely to survive even as the sovereign debt crisis slows economic growth and weakens the currency. He speaks in Hong Kong with Rishaad Salamat on Bloomberg Television's "First Up." (Source: Bloomberg)
June 27 (Bloomberg) -- Former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Harvey Pitt talks about record fines imposed by U.S. and U.K. regulators against Barclays Plc after the bank admitted it submitted false London and euro interbank offered rates. He speaks with Cory Johnson and Peter Cook on Bloomberg Television's "Taking Stock." (Source: Bloomberg)
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