Ten traders accused of rigging Euribor rates

Britain's Serious Fraud Office Friday said 10 former Barclays and Deutsche Bank employees have been charged in the first criminal proceedings linked to alleged rigging of Euribor interest rates.

The charges are the latest in a global crackdown on manipulation of major financial benchmarks that has undermined investor confidence in markets.

Euribor is shorthand for the Euro Interbank Offered Rate. The benchmark is based on interest rates at which a panel of European banks borrow from each other. Euribor is significant because it's used to set prices or interest rates on mortgages, interest rate swaps, savings accounts and other financial products.

Barclays employees Colin Bermingham, Carlo Palombo, Philippe Moryoussef and Sisse Bohart were accused of conspiracy to defraud. Deutsche Bank employees Christian Bittar, Achim Kraemer, Andrea Hauschild, Joerg Vogt, Ardalan Gharagozlou and Kai-Uwe Kapppauf face the same allegation.

The defendants are scheduled to make their first appearance in Westminster Magistrates' Court on Jan. 11.

"Criminal proceedings will be issued against other individuals in due course," the Serious Fraud Office said.

The new allegations come as investigators in the U.S., Europe and around the world investigate suspected rigging of other benchmarks used to set rates on trillions of dollars of mortgages, credit cards, loans and other widely used financial products.

Former Citigroup and UBS trader Tom Hayes was convicted of conspiracy to defraud and sentenced to 14 years in prison for manipulating the London Interbank Offered Rate for Japanese yen. The case marked the first time an individual was convicted of rigging the important benchmark, and came after several banks pleaded guilty to Libor manipulation.

Six former traders are currently on trial in England on Libor-rigging charges. Five other ex-traders are scheduled to stand trial in January for allegedly manipulating Libor rates for the U.S. dollar.