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(Corrects name in 5th paragraph to Federal Housing FinanceAgency, from Authority)
By Karen Freifeld
NEW YORK, March 19 (Reuters) - U.S. mortgage finance companyFreddie Mac is suing more than a dozen banks forlosses from the alleged manipulation of the benchmark interestrate known as Libor.
Bank of America Corp, JPMorgan Chase & Co, UBS AG and CreditSuisse Group AG are among the banks named as defendants in thelawsuit.
Freddie Mac, which invested in mortgage bonds and swaps tiedto U.S. dollar Libor, claims the banks colluded to rig thebenchmark from 2007 to 2010, according to the complaint, whichwas filed March 14 in U.S. District Court for the EasternDistrict of Virginia.
Freddie Mac sued for undetermined damages.
The inspector general of the Federal Housing Finance Agency,which oversees Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, said the twogovernment-controlled mortgage companies may have suffered morethan $3 billion in losses as a result of Libor manipulation,according to an internal memo obtained by Reuters in December.
In the memo, the watchdog urged the companies' regulator toconsider legal action.
Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, UBS, Credit Suisse andother banks did not immediately respond to calls for comment ordeclined to comment.
More than a dozen banks have been under scrutiny byauthorities in the United States, Japan and Europe over claimsthey altered the Libor to hide financial problems and boostprofits.
Freddie Mac said it discovered the fraud and collusion whenBritain's Barclays admitted in June it submitted false Liborsubmissions, according to the complaint. The bank agreed to pay$453 million that month to settle with British and U.S.authorities.
UBS was fined $1.5 billion in December for fiddling withinterest rates, and Royal Bank of Scotland Group settled withauthorities for $612 million in February.
The case is The Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation vBank of America, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District ofVirginia 13-cv-00342. (Reporting by Karen Freifeld; Editing by Richard Chang andMichael Perry)
