July 24 (Reuters) - Lloyds Banking Group isexpected to announce early next week that the British bank wouldpay between 200 million pounds and 300 million pounds ($509.52million)to settle benchmark interest rate (LIBOR) fixingallegations, the Financial Times reported late on Thursday.
Lloyds is expected to announce the payment before declaringits first-half results, the media agency reported citing peoplefamiliar with the situation. ( http://on.ft.com/1mK7C1q )
The FT said the Lloyds settlement is expected to includefines paid to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)and Department of Justice (DoJ) in the United States and theFinancial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the UK.
According to the news service, the settlement is likely toinclude the publication of extracts from some 40 emails thatallegedly show traders discussing how to manipulate thebenchmarks used to set interest rates for trillions of dollarsworth of financial products between 2006 and 2009.
One person familiar with the situation told the FT thatLloyds was likely to face less political criticism than Barclaysdid as it has changed its top management since the allegedmisconduct took place and it is now clear that many banks wereinvolved.
Lloyds, FCA, CFTC and DoJ could not immediately be reachedfor comment.($1 = 0.5888 British Pounds) (Reporting by Aashika Jain in Bangalore; editing by GunnaDickson)
Lloyds (LLOY)
