Lloyds to reveal Libor penalty

Lloyds Banking Group has admitted it is likely to be the next bank to get hit by the Libor-fixing hammer.

The bank said yesterday it was close to settling with “a number of government agencies” over the scandal, with discussions at a “late stage”.

Lloyds is expected to face a fine of up to £300m, which could be revealed before next week’s first-half results. It will pay regulators on both sides of the Atlantic.

The likely fine, however, is at the lower end of the scale of penalties levied on banks for their role in the scandal involving Libor interest rates, used as a benchmark for a huge range of financial products.

The biggest was paid by UBS which shelled out nearly £1bn. Other banks to have settled include Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland, Netherlands based Rabobank, and the brokers Icap and RP Martin.