(Reuters) - Britain's Serious Fraud Office is calling former traders of Barclays Plc (L:BARC) and Deutsche Bank (DE:DBKGn) for interviews as part of its investigation of whether the Euribor benchmark interest rate was rigged, the FT reported, citing people familiar with the probe.
With the help of special government funding, the Serious Fraud Office is examining if the euro interbank offered rate, Euribor, was manipulated for individual trading benefit, the newspaper said. (http://on.ft.com/193gu3D)
UK regulators are also investigating traders from other banks, the newspaper said, citing sources.
Barclays, which set aside 750 million pounds for fines arising from allegations of manipulation in currency markets, last week said it hopes to settle these investigations as soon as possible.
Deutsche, for its part, is gearing up to pay almost 1 billion euros for fines related to the settlement of allegations related to the manipulation of Libor.
The SFO followed dual strands of Euribor and dollar Libor for investigation, the newspaper said.
Barclays, UBS AG (S:UBSN) Deutsche and a few other banks and brokerages were fined about $6 billion by U.S. and European regulators last year for alleged Libor and Euribor rigging
Barclays, Deutsche and the SFO could not be reached immediately for comment outside regular business hours.
