Rabobank Groep faces a fine of more than $440 million for Libor rigging as global regulators seek to increase the $2.5 billion in penalties already levied in the rate-manipulation scandal, Bloomberg News reported today. Rabobank, the second-biggest Dutch lender, is next in line to reach a settlement with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the Department of Justice and the U.K. Financial Services Authority over claims that it tried to manipulate benchmark interest rates. The penalty, which may come as soon as May, is likely to be between the 290 million pounds ($440 million) Barclays Plc paid in June and the $612 million Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc paid this month. Barclays, UBS AG and RBS have been fined more than $2.5 billion following a global probe into Libor manipulation. Traders rigged the benchmark to profit from bets on derivatives, while banks sought to submit artificially low rates to appear financially healthier than they were, according to regulators.
