ZURICH, Jan 22 (Reuters) - At least six banks involved in aSwiss investigation of alleged Libor interest rate-rigging arein settlement talks, Bloomberg reported on Friday, citing twopeople familiar with the negotiations.
Switzerland's competition body COMCO wants to reach asettlement with the banks and is looking to complete the probeby July, Bloomberg said. http://bloom.bg/20j25VX
In 2012 COMCO announced its investigation into possiblecollusion among traders to influence the London InterbankOffered rate (Libor) - a key benchmark interest rate used to setprices for trillions of dollars of assets - and Tibor, itsJapanese counterpart.
Olivier Schaller, COMCO vice-director in charge of the Liborinvestigation, declined to comment on the Bloomberg report butsaid he hoped the case would be finished this year.
Twelve banks including UBS, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank and HSBC were theoriginal targets of the investigation, with another four addedin 2013, Schaller said.
Bloomberg did not name the banks in settlement talks.
UBS, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank and HSBC declined tocomment on the report.
UBS has previously disclosed that COMCO had granted itconditional immunity in connection with potential competitionlaw violations related to submissions and transactions for Swissfranc Libor. (Reporting by Joshua Franklin; Additional reporting by KathrinJones and Huw Jones; Editing by Adrian Croft)