Deutsche Bank Fined $70 Million for Trying to Rig Benchmark Rate
- U.S. regulator says bank staff knew actions were illegal
- Deutsche says it cooperated with CFTC, worked to fix issues
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Deutsche Bank AG agreed to pay $70 million to settle a U.S. regulator’s claims its traders sought to manipulate a benchmark for interest-rate derivatives and other financial instruments.
For years, traders at Deutsche Bank Securities sought to rig the ISDAfix to benefit the firms’ positions on cash-settled options on interest-rate swaps, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission said in a statement late Thursday announcing the settlement. Investigators said the bank’s personnel attempted to steer the rate with a pair of strategies and that abuses occurred from 2007 until May of 2012.