Lloyds said it could not name the employees because the dismissals were subject to appeal
LLOYDS Banking Group today sacked eight managers and traders for the rigging of benchmark interest rates and confiscated £3 million of their future bonuses.
The employees had been suspended since at least July 28, when Lloyds was fined £220 million by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic.
Lloyds employees were found to have rigged benchmark borrowing rates for their own profit as well as to conceal the bank’s distress at the height of the banking crisis, the Financial Conduct Authority found. They also tried to cheat the Bank of England by inflating a benchmark used by it to calculate fees charged to Lloyds to use an emergency funding scheme.
The unnamed employees will forfeit £3 million of bonuses awarded but not yet paid out, by virtue of the bank’s standard clawback policy.
About ten other employees cited in the regulatory settlement have already left Lloyds, which said it was unable to take disciplinary action against them.
Two or three employees who had been suspended have now been reinstated after Lloyds found they were not responsible for any wrongdoing.
Antonio Horta-Osorio, chief executive of Lloyds, said the behaviour of the sacked employees was “totally unacceptable”.
The offences took place between 2006 and 2009. Lloyds, which is 20 per cent owned by taxpayers, said it could not name the employees because the dismissal rulings were still subject to appeal. Also naming them could prejudice any trial if the Serious Fraud Office investigation into interest rate rigging leads to prosecutions.
The Times
