The letter ''B'' of the signage on the Barclays headquarters in Canary Wharf is hoisted up the side of the building in London July 20, 2012. 
 
 U.S. prosecutors and European regulators are close to arresting individual traders and charging them with colluding to manipulate global benchmark interest rates, according to people familiar with a sweeping investigation into the rigging scandal. 
 
 Federal prosecutors in Washington, D.C., have recently contacted lawyers representing some of the suspects to notify them that criminal charges and arrests could be imminent, said two of those sources, who asked not to be identified because the investigation is ongoing. 
 
 Defense lawyers, some of whom represent suspects, said prosecutors have indicated they plan to begin making arrests and filing criminal charges in the next few weeks. In long-running financial investigations it is not uncommon for prosecutors to contact defense lawyers before filing charges to offer suspects a chance to cooperate or take a plea, these lawyers said. 
 
 The prospect of charges and arrests means prosecutors are getting a fuller picture of how traders at major banks allegedly sought to influence the London Interbank Offered Rate, or Libor, and other global rates that underpin hundreds of trillions of dollars in assets. The criminal charges would come alongside efforts by regulators to fine major banks, and could show that the alleged activity was not rampant at the lenders. 
 
 "The individual criminal charges have no impact on the regulatory moves against the banks," said a European source familiar with the matter. "But banks are hoping that at least regulators will see that the scandal was mainly due to individual misbehavior of a gang of traders." 
 
 In Europe, financial regulators are focusing on a ring of traders from several European banks who allegedly sought to rig benchmark interest rates such as Libor, said the European source familiar with the investigation in Europe. 
 
 The source, who did not want to be identified because the investigation is ongoing, said regulators are checking emails among a group of traders and believe they are close to piecing together a picture of how the suspects allegedly conspired to make money by manipulating rates. The rates are set daily based on an average of estimates supplied by a panel of banks. 
 
 "More than a handful of traders at different banks are involved," said the source familiar with the investigation by European regulators. 
 
 There are also probes in Europe concerning Euribor, the Euro Interbank Offered Rate. 
 
 It is not clear on which individuals and banks federal prosecutors are most focused. A top U.S. Department of Justice lawyer overseeing the investigation did not respond to a request for comment. 
 
 Reuters previously reported that more than a dozen current and former employees of several large banks are under investigation, including Barclays Plc, UBS and Citigroup, and have hired defense lawyers over the past year as a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., continues to gather evidence. 
 
 Activity in the Libor investigation, which has been going on for three years, has quickened since Barclays agreed last month to pay $453 million in fines and penalties to settle allegations with regulators and prosecutors that some of its employees tried to manipulate key interest rates from 2005 through 2009. 
 
 Barclays, which signed a non-prosecution agreement with U.S. prosecutors, is the first major bank to reach a settlement in the investigation, which also is looking at the activities of employees at HSBC, Deutsche Bank and other major lenders. 
 
 HSBC declined to comment. Officials at Citigroup and UBS were not available for comment. 
 
 The Barclays settlement sparked outrage and a series of public hearings in Britain, after which Barclays Chief Executive Bob Diamond announced his resignation from the UK bank. 
 
 The revelations have raised questions about the integrity of Libor, which is used as a benchmark in setting prices for loans, mortgages and derivative contracts. 
 
 Adding to concerns are documents released by the New York Federal Reserve Bank this month that show regulators in the United States and England had some knowledge that bankers were submitting misleading Libor bids during the 2008 financial crisis to make their financial institutions appear stronger than they really were. 
 
 Among other details, the Fed documents included the transcript of an April 2008 telephone call between a Barclays trader in New York and Fed official Fabiola Ravazzolo, in which the unidentified trader said: "So, we know that we're not posting um, an honest Libor." 
 
 The source familiar with the investigation in Europe said two traders suspended from Deutsche Bank were among those being investigated. A Deutsche Bank spokesman declined to comment. 
 
 The Financial Times said on Wednesday that regulators were looking at suspected communication among four traders who had worked at Barclays, Credit Agricole, HSBC and Deutsche Bank. 
 
 Credit Agricole said it had not been accused of any wrongdoing related to the attempted manipulation of Libor by Barclays, but had responded to requests for information from various authorities related to the matter. 
 
 Beyond regulatory penalties and criminal charges, banks face a growing number of civil lawsuits from cities, companies and financial institutions claiming they were harmed by rate manipulation. Morgan Stanley recently estimated that the 11 global banks linked to the Libor scandal may face $14 billion in regulatory and legal settlement costs through 2014. 
 
 In the United States, the regulatory investigation is being led by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which has made the Libor probe one of its top priorities. 
 
 (Reporting by Matthew Goldstein and Jennifer Ablan in New York and Philipp Halstrick in Frankfurt, with additional reporting by Emily Flitter in New York and Aruna Viswanatha in Washington, D.C.; Editing by Alwyn Scott, Maureen Bavdek and Dale Hudson) ||||| Article Excerpt 
 
 Several groups of traders are under investigation by regulators around the world for allegedly banding together to rig interest rates, people close to the probe said. 
 
 The continuing criminal and civil scrutiny includes more than a dozen traders from at least nine banks, often allegedly working together in small groups to target different interest rates on separate continents, the people said. 
 
 The emerging details about traders suggest to investigators a widespread conspiracy that continued for several years and cascaded around the world. As a result, the banks where the traders worked are under growing pressure to explain what they knew ... ||||| Regulators from Stockholm to Seoul are re-examining how benchmark borrowing costs are set amid concern they are just as vulnerable to manipulation as the London interbank offered rate. 
 
 Stibor, Sweden’s main interbank rate, Sibor, the leading rate in Singapore, and Tibor in Japan are among rates facing fresh scrutiny because, like Libor, they are based on banks’ estimated borrowing costs rather than real trades. In some cases they may be easier to rig than Libor as fewer banks contribute to their calculation, according to academics and analysts. 
 
 “Many of the ingredients which would make it easy to manipulate Libor and collude are common in other benchmarks,” said Rosa Abrantes-Metz, an economist with consulting firm Global Economics Group and an associate professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business. “Regulatory agencies are starting to take a look at those and there is a growing sense they need to change.” 
 
 Barclays Plc, the U.K.’s second-largest bank, was fined a record 290 million pounds ($450 million) last month for attempting to rig Libor and Euribor, its equivalent in euros, to appear more healthy during the financial crisis and boost earnings before it. At least 12 banks including Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc (RBS) and Deutsche Bank AG are being investigated for manipulating Libor. 
 
 Beyond Libor 
 
 Regulators and industry groups are now turning their attention to whether other benchmark rates were manipulated in the same way. Sweden’s central bank, the Japanese Bankers Association, the Monetary Authority of Singapore and South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission have all announced probes into how their domestic rates are set. 
 
 Libor is determined by a daily poll carried out on behalf of the British Bankers’ Association that asks banks to estimate how much it would cost to borrow from each other for different periods and in different currencies. Three-month dollar Libor was 0.453 percent on July 19. 
 
 Derivatives traders at Barclays asked colleagues who inputted the rate each day to amend their submissions to benefit their trading positions. They also contacted traders at other banks to ask them to do the same. Traders at Deutsche Bank, HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA), Societe Generale SA and Credit Agricole SA are under investigation for interest-rate manipulation, a person with knowledge of the matter said. 
 
 With 18 banks on the panel for U.S. dollar Libor and 43 banks for Euribor, only small moves can be achieved by making deliberately high or low submissions. Manipulation becomes easier when fewer banks are contributing, according to Abrantes- Metz at Global Economics. 
 
 Collusion Ability 
 
 “Collusion typically occurs in markets with just a few players,” Abrantes-Metz said. “All else being equal, the smaller the group, the easier it is to collude.” 
 
 Stibor, the Stockholm interbank offered rate, is set by five banks after RBS pulled itself off the panel on April 30. It is calculated by Nasdaq OMX Stockholm every day for eight maturities. 
 
 Riksbank, the Swedish central bank, said in its biannual Financial Stability Report published June 1 that market participants were concerned about Stibor, the basis for 40 billion Swedish krona ($5.8 billion) of loans and financial contracts. 
 
 Stibor Questions 
 
 “Many market participants state in the Riksbank’s latest risk survey that there are problems with the Stibor,” the report stated. ”This refers to incentives for the banks to set the Stibor at fair levels, the opinion that too few banks determine the Stibor and the insufficient transparency of the Stibor and its framework.” 
 
 The central bank was unavailable for comment because they are on vacation, said spokeswoman Cecilia Roos Isksson. 
 
 Nibor, the Norwegian rate, is set by a panel of six banks. Cibor, the Copenhagen rate, is based on a group of eight lenders. 
 
 Tibor, the Tokyo interbank offered rate, is set by the Japanese Bankers Association based on submissions from 16 banks for yen and 15 lenders for euroyen, according to the industry group’s website. 
 
 The association yesterday asked the banks to answer questions on how they make their submissions, said spokesman Hisanao Aoki. The reference banks, including lending units of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. (8306), JPMorgan Chase & Co., Deutsche Bank and BNP Paribas SA, must reply by Aug. 10. 
 
 Citigroup, UBS 
 
 Citigroup Inc. (C) and UBS AG (UBSN) were ordered to suspend some operations in Japan last December after the Financial Services Agency found their employees attempted to influence Tibor to a “favorable level” for derivatives trading. Citigroup was banned from trading tied to Libor and Tibor for two weeks, and UBS received a one-week suspension. 
 
 Association officials today met with the ruling Democratic Party of Japan’s finance committee, headed by former Morgan Stanley banker Tsutomu Okubo, to explain how Tibor is set. 
 
 “Barclays’s fine is enormous and far above the rate of such penalties typically imposed on Japanese financial institutions for wrongdoing,” Okubo said at the meeting. “We must strengthen investors’ trust in Tokyo’s financial market.” 
 
 Association Chairman Yasuhiro Sato, who is also chief executive officer of Mizuho Financial Group Inc. (8411), said today that while the process for setting Tibor is sound, he is open to making changes based on the review. 
 
 South Korea’s antitrust agency this week expanded a probe to see whether a key money-market rate was kept artificially high. The Fair Trade Commission inspected 10 brokerages and nine banks to determine if there was collusion on certificate of deposit rates, the agency said in an e-mailed statement. 
 
 Under Pressure 
 
 The country’s 91-day certificate of deposit rate is a benchmark for bank lending and borrowing as well as for interest-rate swaps. Quotes are collected twice a day by the Korea Financial Investment Association from 10 brokerages. 
 
 “Korea is a relatively insulated system where the leading banks are influential in the local market and were under pressure to maintain their soundness and their profit margins during the crisis,” said David Marshall, an analyst at research firm CreditSights Inc. in Singapore. Manipulation in Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong is less likely, he said. 
 
 The Monetary Authority of Singapore said yesterday it will look into how banks are setting “key market interest rate benchmarks” amid similar reviews by regulators in several markets. The Association of Banks in Singapore sets Sibor based on submissions by 12 lenders. RBS said this week it decided to withdraw from the panel following the January announcement of changes to the Edinburgh-based lender’s strategic priorities. It has also withdrawn from the Tokyo and Hong Kong interbank offered rate-setting panels this year. 
 
 Hong Kong 
 
 In Hong Kong, the performance of banks in contributing to set the benchmark Hibor rate is “reviewed regularly,” the Hong Kong Association of Banks said in an e-mailed statement today. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority said it hasn’t observed “any anomaly” over the past 20 years and will monitor the industry group’s review, according to an e-mailed statement. Hibor is set daily based on quotations provided by 20 lenders, according to the association’s website. 
 
 Barclays Plc (BARC), Britain’s second-biggest lender by assets, said this month it would pull out of the group of 12 banks in the United Arab Emirates whose quotes determine the interbank lending rate in the second biggest Arab economy. Dutch lender Rabobank last month withdrew from the panels that set Libor in Japanese yen, the Canadian dollar, the Swiss franc, the Danish krone and the Swedish krona. It continues to contribute toward Libor in U.S. dollars, euros and pounds. 
 
 To contact the reporters on this story: Liam Vaughan in London at lvaughan6@bloomberg.net; Gavin Finch in London at gfinch@bloomberg.net 
 
 To contact the editors responsible for this story: Edward Evans at eevans3@bloomberg.net; Chitra Somayaji at csomayaji@bloomberg.net
– Looks like Barclays wasn't the only one gaming the Libor system. Investigators are looking into an alleged conspiracy in which traders around the world worked together to rig Libor to boost their personal profits, the Wall Street Journal reports. Several different groups were allegedly working to rig the rate from 2005 to 2011, with the practice spreading as traders switched banks. One cabal alone involved six of the 16 banks that set the daily yen Libor rate. Prosecutors in the US and Europe are close to arresting a number of traders over the scandal, sources tell Reuters—indeed, some of the suspects' lawyers have already been notified of impending arrests. The arrests could take pressure off the banks, making the rate-fixing look more like individual malfeasance than systematic corporate wrongdoing. Meanwhile, Bloomberg reports that regulators from Switzerland to South Korea to Japan are looking into the possibility that their rates might be vulnerable to foul play.