UK watchdog bans former Rabobank trader after Libor conviction
LONDON (Reuters) - Lee Stewart, a former trader at Rabobank, has been banned from working in Britain's financial services industry after a criminal conviction for Libor fraud, the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said on Thursday.
The FCA said Stewart was banned for "lacking honesty and integrity following a criminal conviction for fraud in the United States for his role in a conspiracy to manipulate Rabobank's U.S. dollar Libor submissions".
"This action follows the recent ban of Paul Robson, another trader at Rabobank. To date the FCA has issued 14 warning notices related to interest rate benchmarks, and continues wider investigations into individuals' conduct in relation to LIBOR misconduct," the watchdog said.
Stewart, a former senior derivatives trader at the Dutch cooperative lender, pleaded guilty in March to U.S. charges that he took part in a scheme to manipulate the London interbank offered rate (Libor).
"This ban further reinforces our expectation that individuals and firms take responsibility for ensuring market integrity and reminds them of the consequences if they fall short of our standards," FCA acting director of enforcement, Georgina Philippou, said in a statement.
Libor is at the centre of global investigations into misconduct at several banks.
It is a key short-term rate banks charge each other for loans and underpins hundreds of trillions of dollars of financial products such as home loans.
(Reporting by Huw Jones; editing by Carolyn Cohn)
