Britain's ICAP nears Libor settlement: WSJ

Britain's ICAP Plc may pay less than $100 million to settle a civil probe into the broker-dealer's alleged role in the manipulation of a key interest rate, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the settlement talks.

The agreement could come as soon as Wednesday and would be the fourth in an investigation into the alleged manipulation of the London interbank offered rate, or Libor, and other benchmarks on which are based interest rates for trillions of dollars of loans. (http://link.reuters.com/gur33v)

Barclays Plc , UBS AG and Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc have agreed to pay a total of about $2.5 billion in settlements since last summer.

ICAP spokeswoman Brigitte Trafford said she had no comment on the Journal report.

(Reporting by Sakthi Prasad in Bangalore; Editing by Christopher Cushing and David Holmes)