A senior banker has admitted to conspiracy and fraud linked to the manipulation of a key inter-bank lending rate for the first time in Britain after a scandal that rocked the financial world, British authorities said Tuesday.
The banker from a British lender has pleaded guilty to charges stemming from a major investigation into the manipulation of Libor, the London Interbank Offered Rate, which banks charge each other for short-term loans.
Libor underpins an estimated $300 trillion of transactions worldwide.
The case at London`s Southwark Crown Court and the banker and bank cannot be identified due to legal restrictions.
Britain`s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) said that the individual had admitted "conspiracy to defraud in connection with manipulating Libor."
"This is the first criminal conviction arising from the Serious Fraud Office`s Libor investigation," it said.
"Eleven other individuals stand charged and await trial. The investigation into others continues," it added.
Traders can make significant amounts of money on small movements of Libor rates although banks are meant to have systems in place known as "Chinese walls" to prevent traders and bankers who help set the rates sharing information.
A string of major banks around the world have been caught up in the Libor scandal.
In the United States, two former traders at Dutch bank Radobank have pleaded guilty to manipulating Libor.
