Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds are being sued in New York in the latest fall-out from the Libor rate-rigging scandal.
They were named in a civil case lodged at a federal court in Manhattan yesterday by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).
RBS, Lloyds, Barclays, HBOS, UBS, Rabobank and Deutsche Bank along with the US-based Bank of America, Citigroup and JP Morgan Chase are among 16 banks accused of fraudulently keeping the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor) deliberately low to enrich themselves between 2007 and 2011.
The British Bankers' Association, which at the time oversaw the banks' daily Libor fixing, is also being sued.
RBS has already been fined €391m (£324m) following a European Commission investigation into the scandal.
The FDIC wants to recoup losses it says were suffered by 10 US failed banks during the financial crisis. It has since taken them over.
Court papers state: "The Panel Bank Defendants fraudulently and collusively suppressed USD Libor, and they did so to their advantage."
Libor affects $350 trillion (£210trn) worth of contacts around the world, including mortgages, bonds and consumer loans. It is one of the most crucial interest rates in finance.
Four of the banks - RBS, Barclays, UBS and Rabobank - have already paid $2.6bn (£1.6bn) to settle US and European regulators' charges of rigging the Libor.
The banks signed agreements with the US Justice Department that allow them to avoid criminal prosecution if they meet certain conditions.
The process of setting the Libor came under scrutiny after Barclays admitted in 2012 that it had submitted false information to keep the rate low.
A number of US cities and municipal agencies, which hold bonds and other investments whose values are pegged to the Libor rate, have also filed suits against banks that set the Libor rate.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article