In June 2012, Barclays agreed to pay $453 million in fines for attempting to manipulate Libor. Libor, or the London interbank offered rate, is calculated daily in London when panels of banks submit estimates of how much it costs them to borrow. It is a major index that helps judge the health of banks and influences rates from mortgages to student loans to credit cards.

Since Barclays' settlement, U.S. and UK lawmakers have demanded to know whether regulators were aware of Libor rigging and what they did about it. On July 13, 2012, The Federal Reserve Bank of New York released documents showing that Barclays alerted U.S. regulators as far back as 2007 to concerns that banks were rigging benchmark interest rates. - Reuters

On Wednesday, February 6, it was announced the Royal Bank of Scotland had been fined £390 million by UK and US regulators over Libor.