Barclays 'could face £4.5bn' in lawsuits over Libor

Friday 6th July 2012

Barclays faces a possible £4.5bn bill from the Libor-fixing scandal that has ripped the bank apart, a top City guru has warned. The analyst last night said the cost of civil lawsuits against Barclays and other top banks caught up in the rate fiddling could be 'material'. Nomura’s Chintan Joshi said on average each bank caught up in the scandal faced a £4.5billion bill.

But it could be far higher given the huge size of the loans based on Libor rates that banks are accused of manipulating.

Mr Joshi told today's Sun newspaper: “The losses could be considerable. Our main thought at this stage is that if this issue is the size of PPI, that would be a positive outcome for the industry.”

The blast came amid fresh warnings that up to 15 top banks around the world will be dragged into the scandal that has rocked Barclays. Sources claimed RBS will be the next UK bank to be fined, followed by Halifax Bank of Scotland, now part of Lloyds.