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By Jonathan Stempel
NEW YORK, Nov 13 (Reuters) - Barclays Plc agreed topay $120 million to settle private U.S. litigation accusing itof conspiring with rivals to rig the benchmark interest rateknown as Libor, lawyers for the plaintiffs said on Friday.
The British bank is the first to resolve claims by so-called"over-the-counter" investors that transacted directly with bankscomprising a panel to determine Libor, or the London InterbankOffered Rate.
Libor is used to set rates on hundreds of trillions ofdollars of transactions, including for credit cards, studentloans and mortgages. Banks use it determine the cost ofborrowing from one another.
Sixteen banks were accused in the private litigation thatbegan in 2011 of conspiring to manipulate the benchmark.
"This is a very good settlement for the class," HilaryScherrer, a partner at Hausfeld LLP representing the plaintiffs,said in an interview. "It is an icebreaker that could open upthis litigation to future settlements."
Barclays spokesman Mark Lane declined to comment.
The bank agreed last month to pay $94 million to settleseparate litigation accusing it of conspiring to rig Euribor,which is Libor's euro-denominated equivalent.
And in June 2012, Barclays admitted it manipulated Libor andEuribor as it reached $453 million of settlements with U.S. andBritish regulators. Several other banks, including Deutsche BankAG and UBS AG have reached similar accords.
Friday's settlement requires approval by U.S. District JudgeNaomi Reice Buchwald in Manhattan.
In March 2013, she dismissed a "substantial portion" of theprivate Libor litigation, including federal antitrust claims.
But on August 4 of this year, she said plaintiffs couldprevail on fraud claims if they proved that panel banks lied tothe Libor administrator about their own borrowing costs, andthat the plaintiffs relied on those lies.
Barclays will cooperate in Libor litigation against otherbanks, the Hausfeld firm said. Others suing over Libor includeso-called bondholder plaintiffs and exchange-based plaintiffs,and the brokerage Charles Schwab Corp.
The case is In re: Libor-based Financial InstrumentsAntitrust Litigation, U.S. District Court, Southern District ofNew York, No. 11-md-02262. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; editing by ChrisReese and David Gregorio)
