US fines Goldman $120m for rate-rigging

NEW YORK: US regulators fined Goldman Sachs $120 million for attempting to manipulate a widely-used global interest rate benchmark to benefit its trading positions.

Goldman Sachs traders between 2007 and 2012 deliberately timed and priced trades to influence the published price of the benchmark interest rate, the US Commodities Futures Trading Commission said in a statement.

Goldman, one of a group of banks whose data set the benchmark daily, also made false submissions to skew the rate at the expense of counterparties, the CFTC said.

The US Dollar International Swaps and Derivates Association Fix is a daily benchmark used for a wide range of financial products, such as interest-rate swaps and derivatives.

In addition, the company’s cooperation “was not satisfactory” prior to the latter stages of the investigation, the CFTC added.

The agency previously fined Citigroup and Barclays for attempted manipulation of the same benchmark interest rate.

“This matter, the third enforcement action relating to the (benchmark), demonstrates the breadth of this kind of misconduct across the industry, and within Goldman, the extent of the misconduct across trading desks and product lines,” said CFTC director of enforcement Aitan Goelman. — AFP