Three convicted in Libor rigging trial

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Three former Barclays employees have been found guilty of rigging the Libor interest rate between 2005 and 2007.

Jay Merchant, 45, was convicted unanimously at Southwark Crown Court of manipulating the key financial rate.

Jonathan Mathew, 35, and Alex Pabon, 38, were found guilty by majority verdict after a ten-week trial. The trio will be sentenced on Thursday.

The Libor rate is used by banks to set prices of financial products.

It stands for the London inter-bank lending rate, and underpins trillions of pounds worth of loans and financial contracts for households and companies across the world.

The jury was unable to reach a verdict, after nearly two weeks of deliberation, in relation to two other defendants, Ryan Reich, 34, and Stelios Contogoulas, 44.

Profits

Between 2005 and 2007, 16 banks, including Barclays, submitted daily estimates of borrowing rates to the British Banker' Association, which used them to calculate Libor.

The jury heard the ability to organise even minor movements in the rate had the potential to generate large profits for a trader.

In May, a sixth Barclays employee Peter Johnson pleaded guilty to conspiring to manipulate the rate.

The prosecution said four traders - Jay Merchant, Alex Pabon, Ryan Reich and Stelios Contogoulas - asked Libor rate submitters, Jonathan Mathew and Peter Johnson, to put in rates that suited their trading at the daily setting of Libor.

It is the third case to be brought by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) into Libor manipulation.

The SFO now has to decide whether to call a retrial of Mr Reich and Mr Contogoulas.