Over a period of several years, commencing in at least 2005, Barclays Bank and Barclays
Capital (collectively “Barclays”), by and through their agents, officers and employees located
in at least New York, London and Tokyo, repeatedly attempted to manipulate and made false,
misleading or knowingly inaccurate submission concerning LIBOR and Euribor. U.S.
Commodity Futures Trading Commission (hereinafter “CFTC”) deemed it appropriate that public
proceedings be instituted to determine whether Barclays engaged in the violation and any order
should be issued imposing remedial sanctions. In June 2012, CFTC accordingly ordered that
Barclays shall cease and desist from violating of the Act, shall pay a civil monetary penalty
of $200 Million Dollars, and Barclays and their successors shall comply with several remedial
conditions and undertakings. This study bases on CFTC’s order instituting proceeding pursuant
to sections 6(c) and 6(d) of the Commodity Exchange Act, as amended, making findings and
imposing remedial sanctions.
After this LIBOR rigging case colluded by international financial institutions was opened, the
market turned into a turmoil and credibility in the market was sharply falling. Hence,
innovative actions initiated by national and/or international supervisory authorities in order to
recover financial confidence. In the Korean financial market there was also a suspicion on CD
rate manipulation, so-called Korean version of LIBOR and Fair Trade Commission (hereinafter
“FTC”) launched an investigation into the case in July, 2012. But this investigation process has
been still lagging over the last 4 years and the financial institutions concerned supposedly
submitted their written opinion in April 2016, and FTC will make their final decision during
plenary session expecting in May 2016. Along with this, FTC disclosed that they review the
impact of LIBOR rigging case on Korean financial market on 30 July, 2015.
At this critical juncture, it might be highly significant to identify the key decisions of CFTC
on how they determined the violation of Barclays, ordered civil monetary penalty, and imposed
remedial sanctions. This study would help us review our potential failure cases in the financial
market at the present and in the future.