Newsroom

May 25, 2016

Citibank to pay $425M to CFTC

Citibank will pay $425 million in fines to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission to settle allegations of attempting to manipulate a U.S. benchmark for interest rate products.

According to USA TODAY, Citibank is accused of having "tried to boost trading profits by attempting to manipulate and make false reports about the U.S. Dollar International Swaps and Derivatives Association Fix."

Citibank and two of its Japanese affiliates are also accused of having attempted to manipulate the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor) and the Euroyen Tokyo Interbank Offered Rate. A separate charge involved an accusation of false reporting of the U.S. dollar Libor rates to "protect its reputation" during the financial crisis.

Citibank is the first U.S.-based bank to agree to pay fines for Libor manipulation. It did not admit or deny the allegations.

NCUA has pending litigation against several residential mortgage-backed securities trustees and Libor banks for allegations related to the corporate credit union losses. Citigroup settled with NCUA for $20.5 million in 2011, in response to an RMBS suit.

NAFCU continues to support NCUA's aggressive legal recovery efforts and to urge the agency to be transparent in how and when the funds recovered will be refunded to credit unions.