FCA revokes ban on Libor traders after court overturns rate-rigging convictions
The financial watchdog has revoked bans it had placed on four City traders convicted of rigging Libor and Euribor interest rates after the Court of Appeal overturned their convictions.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said on Friday it “has reviewed its regulatory action against individuals whose convictions have recently been overturned by the Court of Appeal” and “will take no further action against these individuals in relation to this matter. “
“As these convictions formed the basis on which the FCA took its action, we have revoked the bans of Colin Bermingham, Philippe Moryoussef, Jonathan Mathew and Christian Bittar and removed the associated Final Notices from FCA channels,” the watchdog said.
The regulator’s decision comes after a group of five former Barclays traders, including Bermingham, Mathew, and Moryoussef, as well as Jay Merchant and Alex Pabon, had their fraud convictions overturned by the Court of Appeal on 7 October.
The five investment bankers, who previously worked at Barclays, had their convictions quashed after serving jailtime for conspiring to rig the now-defunct interest rates in the run-up to the financial crisis.
On 9 October, Bittar, who was previously convicted of rigging the Euribor interest rates, also had his fraud conviction overturned by the Court of Appeal.
The decision came just over a year after the Supreme Court’s landmark decision to overturn a similar ruling on Tom Hayes and Carlo Palombo last year. The two former City traders became the faces of the so-called ‘Libor scandal’ which saw the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) pursue a volley of prosecutions in the wake of the 2008 crash.
The FCA said last year it would halt its proceedings against Hayes and revoke Palombo’s ban after the Supreme Court quashed their criminal convictions.