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By Steve Slater and Kirstin Ridley
LONDON, Feb 6 (Reuters) - Royal Bank of Scotland traders laughed and counted their profits as they rigged Liborinterest rates and dubbed the London market a cartel, accordingto conversations published by regulators on Wednesday.
"Our 6m fixing move the entire fixing, hahaha," aJapanese yen derivatives trader boasted to another trader,according to documents released by British and U.S. regulatorson Wednesday.
In another exchange in August 2007, a senior RBS yen tradersaid: "Its just amazing how libor fixing can make you that muchmoney ... it's a cartel now in london."
The conversations were published after RBS was fined $612million to settle U.S. and UK regulatory charges of misconduct,manipulation, attempted manipulation and false reporting of yen,Swiss franc and dollar-denominated Libor. It is the third bankto be nailed for rigging benchmark rates.
The revelation in emails and on computer chat systems sentby RBS traders to colleagues and traders at other banks are anecho of the embarrassing message chains seen at Barclays and UBS, which settled Libor manipulationcases last year.
They have been seized on by politicians and an angry publicas evidence of a brazen attitude to price fixing, with traderscalling each other "superman" or "a hero" for the manipulation,and promising each other rewards.
Regulators said RBS allowed at least 21 derivatives tradersand primary submitters in London, Tokyo, the U.S. and Singaporeto fiddle rates between 2006 and 2010.
The traders knew they risked regulatory scrutiny. But theyunderestimated the authorities.
"At the moment the FED are all over us about libors," a yentrader said in November 2010.
A senior yen trader replied: "dun think anyone cares the JPYlibor".
RBS staff were not even unduly concerned when authorities started investigations. Some merely stopped overt writtenrequests.
In November 2010, an RBS submitter told a trader he couldn'tchange the rate as requested. But in a phone call immediatelyafterwards he noted he had to be careful as staff were notsupposed to discuss Libor rates in print.
STEAK, BUT NO BOLLINGER
RBS traders promised everything from "sushi rolls fromyesterday" to "lunch ... for the whole desk" in exchange forfavourable submissions, according to the U.S. Commodity FuturesTrading Commission order.
"If u cud see ur way to a small drop there might be a steakin it for ya, haha," a broker said.
That had parallels with emails in the Barclays settlement,when one of its bankers was promised a bottle of Bollingerchampagne as thanks for the rate-rigging.
Tom Hayes, a former UBS trader who has been charged withrigging rates, was again singled out on Wednesday in anelectronic chat from April 2007. When he is told by an RBStrader that his fixing requests are being met, he says: "thxmate ... in fact i owe you big time ... that's beyond the callof duty!"
In other exchanges, some RBS traders promised love andothers begged submitters to comply.
A Swiss franc trader told a submitter after a request for ahigh fix: "if u did that i would come over there and make loveto you".
"PPPPLLLLLEEEEEAAAAASSSSEEEEEE," one trader asked asubmitter in 2009 for a high three month and low six monthsubmission. His request was granted.
