EU set to fine banks in rigging probe

[BRUSSELS] EU antitrust regulators are set to fine six global banks including Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan and HSBC for suspected rigging of benchmark eurozone interest rates, a person familiar with the matter said.

The penalties, which will also target Royal Bank of Scotland , Credit Agricole and Societe Generale, represent the first punishment meted out by Brussels in a global probe and represent another costly payout for an industry struggling to put past misdeeds behind it.

The move comes two years after the European Commission, the EU's antitrust authority, raided a number of banks for suspected fixing of Euribor, a benchmark used as the basis for pricing 250 trillion euros (S$419.45 trillion) worth of financial contracts, from Spanish mortgages…