RBS Said to Suspend European Rates Trading Head in Libor Probe

Royal Bank of Scotland has suspended its head of rates trading for Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, the first senior manager to be put on leave as part of the lender’s probe into allegations of Libor-rigging, two people with knowledge of the move said.

Bloomberg reports that the trader was suspended on October 12th after Bloomberg News reported he instructed colleagues to lower the British lender’s submission to the London interbank offered rate in 2007, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the matter is private.

The suspension is a sign the bank’s two-year-old investigation into its role in the Libor-rigging scandal is widening. Edinburgh-based RBS fired four traders last year for attempted rate rigging. The bank also suspended three more, two of whom have since been reinstated.

RBS traders and their managers regularly sought to influence the firm’s Libor submissions between 2007 and 2010 to profit from derivatives bets, according to employees, regulators and lawyers interviewed by Bloomberg. Staff also communicated with counterparts at other firms to discuss where rates should be set, one of the people said.

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RBS Said to Suspend European Rates Trading Head in Libor Probe

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