The British bank Barclays PLC (NYSE:BCS) is emerging as a major focus of a joint U.S. – U.K. investigation into the alleged manipulation of the benchmark LIBOR interbank lending rates that are the reference point for $350 trillion in financial products, according to a report by the financial times. Investigators are probing whether the bank’s traders and its treasury arm communicated illegally. The treasury arm of the bank helps set the daily London Interbank Offered Rate, or LIBOR, but the two divisions of the company are prohibited from sharing information, known as “Chinese wall” rules. Banks are required by government regulators to put controls in place to prevent various divisions of the company from improperly profiting from confidential information other parts of the bank have received. The investigators are also looking at whether there was any improper influence on Barclays’ daily submissions to the survey that is used to set the LIBOR rate.
