Royal Bank of Scotland is expected to pay roughly $790 million to settle charges by regulators it manipulated a benchmark used to determine the rate at which banks loan to one another.
Details of the pact between the bank and authorities in both the U.S. and U.K. will be announced this Tuesday or Wednesday, Reuters reported. The bank hopes to help pay the fine by withholding roughly $158 million in bonus pay from its investment bankers, the news service reported, citing a source familiar with the situation.
The penalty would be more than the $450 million Barclays agreed in June to pay to resolve investigations into its alleged manipulation of the London interbank offered rate but half as much as the $1.5 billion UBS consented in December to pay to settle a similar probe.
U.S. officials have pushed RBS to plead guilty to a criminal count in addition to paying a fine, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.
"Discussions with various authorities in relation to Libor setting are ongoing," RBS spokesman Ed Canady said in an email. "We continue to cooperate fully with their investigations."
A Department of Justice spokeswoman declined to comment on the investigation. Britain's Financial Services Authority did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
Regulators in the U.S., U.K., Europe and Canada are examining whether roughly a dozen of the world's biggest financial institutions rigged the Libor over two years starting in 2007.
The banks also face a raft of lawsuits by investors who contend they received lower payments on loans, interest rate swaps and other investments as a result of the alleged maneuvering.
