Summary Zurich-based UBS will pay around $1.5 billion, second-highest fine ever levied on a bank.
ZURICH: Switzerland's UBS is set to pay the second-largest fine ever levied on a bank on Wednesday when it admits that a group of its traders rigged Libor interest rates.
Zurich-based UBS will pay around $1.5 billion for the manipulation of yen Libor between 2005 and 2010 by 36 of its staff around the globe, a source familiar with the matter has said.
The fine against UBS, whose spokesman declined comment, would be the second-largest paid by a bank and comes just a week after Britain's HSBC agreed to pay the biggest ever penalty - $1.92 billion - to settle a probe in the United States into laundering money for drug cartels.
The UBS settlement will be with U.S., British and Swiss regulators, although the last has no power to fine the bank. Japanese regulators are also involved, some sources have said, although it is not clear if they will be formally involved in the penalties.
UBS will admit to criminal wrongdoing by its Japanese arm, where one of its traders manipulated yen Libor and euro yen contracts, sources familiar with the matter have told Reuters.
