UBS Reportedly Near Settlement with US, UK over Libor

Swiss bank UBS AG is close to a settlement with U.S. and British authorities and is expected to pay more than $450 million over claims that some of its employees submitted false Libor rates, the New York Times reported.

A UBS spokeswoman told Reuters that the bank was in the midst of discussions with authorities in the United States and Britain in connection with Libor investigations and has been cooperating fully with the regulatory and enforcement authorities, but gave no further details.

"As we are in the midst of discussions with those authorities, we cannot comment further," UBS spokeswoman Karina Byrne said.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the U.S. Justice Department and Britain's Financial Services Authority declined to comment to the newspaper, which cited unnamed officials briefed on the matter. ()

None of the authorities could immediately be reached for comment by Reuters.

In June, British bank Barclays Plc was fined more than $450 million for manipulating Libor benchmark interest rates, prompting the resignation of its chairman and chief executive.

The reliability of the London interbank offered rate, or Libor, which underpins transactions worth trillions of dollars, has been cast into doubt by the rate manipulation accusations. Libor is used to set interest rates on credit cards, student loans and mortgages.