Citigroup reaches $23 mln 'ice breaker' yen Libor settlement

By Jonathan Stempel

NEW YORK, Feb 2 (Reuters) - Citigroup Inc will pay $23million to end private U.S. antitrust litigation claiming thatit conspired to manipulate the yen Libor and Euroyen Tiborbenchmark interest rates.

Lawyers for the plaintiff investors called the accord an"ice breaker" that could spur some of the roughly 20 other bankdefendants to settle.

Settlement papers were filed on Monday night in the U.S.District Court in Manhattan. Court approval is required.

RP Martin, a brokerage whose main assets are now part of BGCPartners Inc, also settled, without making a payment.Citigroup and RP Martin agreed to cooperate in the litigation.

Danielle Romero-Apsilos, a Citigroup spokeswoman, said theNew York-based bank is pleased to settle. BGC, also based in NewYork, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Investors including the California State Teachers'Retirement System and J. Kyle Bass' hedge fund Hayman CapitalManagement LP accused banks of conspiring to rig yen Libor,Euroyen Tibor and Euroyen Tibor futures contracts to benefittheir own trading positions from 2006 through at least 2010.

Among the other defendants are several Japanese banks,including Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc andSumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc, as well as BarclaysPlc, Deutsche Bank AG, HSBC Holdings Plc, JPMorgan Chase & Co and UBS AG.

Banks use the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor) andTokyo Interbank Offered Rate (Tibor) to set the cost ofborrowing from each other. Libor is often used to set rates onsuch things as credit cards and mortgages.

The rate rigging scandal has led to billions of dollars ofregulatory fines against banks worldwide.

Former Citigroup trader Tom Hayes is serving 11 years inprison after being found guilty in London last August ofconspiring to rig Libor.

Nonetheless, the bank's "limited involvement" in the overallscheme may have spurred its settlement, the plaintiffs' lawyerVincent Briganti said in an interview.

"It is their position and our belief that there was nointernal false reporting by any submitters," Briganti said. "Anearly settlement with Citigroup made sense."

In court papers, Briganti called the accord an "ice breaker"that "serves as a potential catalyst for other defendants tosettle."

The litigation is among several in Manhattan in whichinvestors accused banks of conspiring to rig rates or prices infinancial and commodities markets. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by AndreaRicci)