BRUSSELS, Dec 4 (Reuters) - A group of leading European andAmerican banks will be fined a record 1.7 billion euros ($2.3billion) by the European Commission for the rigging ofinterest-rate benchmarks, a source familiar with the matter toldReuters on Wednesday.
The banks to be fined are Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland, JPMorgan,Barclays and Societe Generale, sources havesaid.
"The total fine is 1.7 billion euros," the person said. Ifthe figure is upheld, it would be the highest antitrust penaltyever imposed by the Commission, the EU's competition regulator.
The benchmarks involved are the London interbank offeredrate Libor, the Tokyo interbank offered rate and the euro areaequivalents. They are used to price hundreds of trillions ofdollars in assets ranging from mortgages to derivatives. (Reporting By Foo Yun Chee; writing by John O'Donnell)