FRANKFURT, Oct 18 (Reuters) - The German financial marketsregulator, BaFin, wants to speak to a former Deutsche Bank trader as part of its probe into possiblemanipulation of the Libor benchmark interest rate, a sourcefamiliar with the matter said on Friday.
The move by BaFin, which found no wrongdoing at Deutsche'smanagement after a year investigating its role in the Liboraffair, follows a successful lawsuit by four Euribor and Libortraders last month against the bank.
BaFin, Deutsche Bank and the trader, Christian Bittar, whohas left Deutsche and was contacted in Singapore, all declinedto comment.
Deutsche Bank has said it is talking to authorities in theUnited States and Europe investigating the setting of London andEuropean interbank offered rates, interest rate benchmarks knownas Libor and Euribor, between 2005 and 2011. Libor is used as areference benchmark to price billions of euros' worth offinancial contracts.
BaFin handed over a report of its findings on Deutsche inAugust, but said at the time that it would continue theinvestigation if new facts came to light. The news magazine DerSpiegel reported last month that BaFin was examining the courtdecision in favour of the former traders.
Deutsche had fired the four traders, who did not includeBittar, after discovering that some staff appeared to have beenwilling to consider the bank's own trading positions when theysubmitted their estimates for the Euribor and Libor rates.
The court in Frankfurt ruled that they had been dismissedunfairly, and said Deutsche had failed to implement sufficientcontrols to prevent different arms of its investment bank fromtalking to each other.
Deutsche, Germany's largest lender by market value, says ithas made some provisions to cover the costs of investigationsinto benchmark interest rates, and that there is no sign thatsenior management behaved inappropriately.
Britain and the United States fined Britain's Barclays Bank a record $450 million last year for fixing rates duringthe credit crunch.
Britain's financial regulator said on Friday it had "nocurrent plans" to launch a new investigation into that case,following new evidence disclosed in court filings on Thursday.
Barclays (BARC)
