Louisiana will receive $12.9 million as part of a $220 million settlement with Deutsche Bank for its role in the infamous LIBOR interest rate-rigging scandal, Attorney General Jeff Landry announced today.
LIBOR, or the London Interbank Offered Rate, is a benchmark interest rate that affects trillions of dollars in financial products. A scandal involving banks’ widespread manipulation of LIBOR was revealed several years ago.
An investigation from 45 state attorneys general found that Deutsche Bank manipulated LIBOR in several ways, and that the offered rates from the bank did not accurately reflect true borrowing rates, Landry’s administration says in a news release. Governmental entities and nonprofits in Louisiana were among those defrauded when they invested with the bank. Deutsche Bank is the second of several LIBOR-setting banks under investigation in the U.S., the release says.
Organizations and governmental agencies in Louisiana will be notified if they are eligible to receive some of the $213 million settlement fund, and the balance will pay the costs of the investigation and for “other uses consistent with state laws.”
