Goldman to pay $120m to settle rate-rigging probe

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Goldman to pay $120m to settle rate-rigging probe

DECEMBER 21, 2016 by: Ben McLannahan in New York

Traders manipulated Isdafix benchmark to benefit derivatives positions, says CFTC

Goldman Sachs has been rapped by the US derivatives regulator and ordered to pay a fine of $120m over claims that its traders tried to rig a vital benchmark in the $300tn market for interest-rate swaps.

Wednesday’s order from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission is the third relating to attempted manipulation of Isdafix, a key benchmark, following penalties for Citigroup ($250m) and Barclays ($115m) in May.

It drags Goldman in to the latest front in a global rate-rigging probe that began with Libor and Euribor, two interbank lending rates, and moved on to foreign exchange. To date, the CFTC has imposed fines of more than $5.2bn in 18 actions against a host of Wall Street banks.

The CFTC said that Goldman’s unlawful conduct involved multiple traders, including the head of the bank’s interest-rate products trading group in the US...

Read more:
https://www.ft.com/content/383359ac-c7a2-11e6-8f29-9445cac8966f

It never ends...