By Jenny Park

Deutsche Bank, Germany’s largest lender, has swung to post a net loss in the third quarter, compared to a profit in the same period last year. This posting is largely the result of increasing penalties from global authorities in response to allegations of the firm’s wrongdoings. Among these allegations, Deutsche Bank is alleged to have manipulated benchmark interest rates and to have colluded to manipulate the foreign-exchange market. The firm has set aside €894m for legal costs. 

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November 06, 2014

By Joe Vladeck

The National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) is the latest regulatory body to pursue sanctions against some of the world's largest financial institutions for allegedly manipulating LIBOR, a.k.a. the London Interbank Offered Rate.  LIBOR is a commonly used benchmark interest rate used to price trillions of dollars of financial products, ranging from credit cards and mortgages sold to the public to complicated bespoke derivative securities sold from one financial institution to another.  

The NCUA is alleging that its member credit unions lost investment income as a result of the interest rate manipulations.  The lawsuit, National Credit Union Administration Board v. Credit Suisse Group AG, names some of the world's largest banks, including JPMorgan Chase & Co, Barclays Plc, Societe General SA, and the Royal Bank of Canada.  This suit is the latest action in a fusillade of litigation and regulatory actions taken against the banks, which has drawn mixed results thus far.  Over the summer, Barclays, UBS, and RBS settled with U.S. and European regulators, agreeing to pay fines exceeding $2.5 billion.  But a series of earlier lawsuits, many of which brought claims under U.S. racketeering statutes, were dismissed this past Spring.

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October 15, 2013