美国联邦存款保险公司在伦敦起诉数家欧洲银行
在一宗类似诉讼在纽约受挫之后，美国官方采取不同寻常的动作，在伦敦一家法院就伦敦银行间同业拆借利率(Libor)操纵丑闻起诉欧洲的几家银行。
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which is in charge of winding down failing banks, is suing Barclays, Deutsche Bank, Lloyds Banking Group, Royal Bank of Scotland, Rabobank and UBS, as well as the British Bankers’ Association, the trade group that oversaw the Libor-setting process, for fraudulent misrepresentation. It claims the banks submitted artificially low estimates to the Libor rate-setting process between 2007 and 2009 — known as “lowballing” — making them seem more creditworthy than they really were.
负责清盘倒闭银行的美国联邦存款保险公司(FDIC)，起诉巴克莱(Barclays)、德意志银行(Deutsche Bank)、劳埃德银行集团(Lloyds Banking Group)、苏格兰皇家银行(RBS)、瑞银(UBS)以及负责监管Libor制定流程的英国银行家协会(BBA)从事“欺诈性虚假陈述”。FDIC声称，在2007年至2009年间，这些银行在Libor制定过程中提交人为压低的报价——被成为“低报”——使它们看起来比实际上更具资信可靠度。
The FDIC said in court documents filed at the High Court last month that it was suing on behalf of 39 failed US banks that relied on dollar-denominated Libor when they entered into derivative transactions or calculated interest, and that they “suffered loss as a result,” according to the documents seen by the Financial Times.
根据英国《金融时报》看到的文件，FDIC在上月提交伦敦高等法院的法庭文件中表示，其代表美国39家倒闭银行提起诉讼，这些银行当初在进入衍生品交易或计算利率时依赖美元Libor，它们“因此蒙受了亏损”。
If lowballing had not occurred, the rate would have been set “at an honest, and higher, rate . . . and the closed banks would accordingly have realised higher prices and thus made greater returns” on a variety of Libor-linked loans and mortgages, as well as swaps, options and other agreements that incorporated Libor, the FDIC claims.
FDIC声称，如果没有低报，那么Libor将“被诚实地设定在更高水平……那些倒闭的银行将相应获得更高价格”，并在大量的Libor挂钩贷款和抵押贷款，以及互换、期权和其他包含Libor的合约上“获得更大回报”。
But it said it was not yet able to put a figure on the losses as it could not yet quantify the scale of the lowballing.
但FDIC表示，其还不能给出亏损数字，因为低报的程度尚无法量化。
The London lawsuit comes after parts of a similar claim by the FDIC was thrown out of federal court in New York last year after a judge deemed the court lacked jurisdiction to decide the case.
在伦敦提起诉讼之前，FDIC去年在纽约联邦法院提起的类似诉讼被拒绝受理，因为一名法官裁定，法院对该案没有司法管辖权。
The lawsuit comes as the death knell has been sounded for what the BBA previously dubbed as the “world’s most important number”. The UK financial regulator said earlier this summer that Libor would be phased out and has called for alternatives to be in place by 2021.
在本案被提起之际，此前英国银行家协会所称的“世界最重要数字”的丧钟已敲响。英国金融监管机构今年夏初表示，Libor将被逐渐废除，并呼吁让替代安排最迟在2021年到位。
Libor, or the London interbank offered rate, underpinned $360tn of debt worldwide — from complex derivatives to student loans. It was calculated daily by asking a panel of banks for their hypothetical borrowing costs and working out the average.
Libor支撑着全球360万亿美元的债务——从复杂的衍生品到学生贷款。每天，一组银行会给出它们对自己借款成本的推测值，由此计算出的平均数就得出Libor。
But the benchmark became better known for the manipulation scandal that erupted following the financial crisis.
但是，金融危机后爆出的操纵丑闻，已成了这一基准利率更出名的方面。
Some of the world’s biggest banks — including those named in the FDIC’s lawsuit — paid as much as $9bn in fines to US and UK authorities over the scandal. Several former traders have gone to jail too, although some convictions have been since quashed and appeals are pending.
世界上一些大银行——包括FDIC在诉讼中所列的那些银行——因为操纵丑闻已向美英当局支付了多达90亿美元的罚款。多名前交易员也已锒铛入狱，尽管有些判决后来已被搁置，等待上诉。
So-called lowballing by Barclays is also the subject of a criminal investigation by the UK’s Serious Fraud Office.
巴克莱的所谓低报，也是英国严重欺诈办公室(Serious Fraud Office)的刑事调查对象。
The FDIC often looks to recover losses through the courts. The banks closed by the FDIC and named in the lawsuit range from small community lenders to some of the largest casualties of the financial crisis such as IndyMac and Washington Mutual.
FDIC经常寻求通过法庭追回损失。被FDIC关闭并在这起诉讼中列出的银行，既有小型社区银行，也有金融危机中的一些最大牺牲品，比如印地麦克银行(IndyMac)和华盛顿互惠银行(Washington Mutual)。
While there is no value stated for the English suit, the FDIC’s New York claim was seeking damages as high as $1bn.
尽管在英格兰提起的诉讼未提及金额，但FDIC在纽约法院要求获得的损害赔偿金高达10亿美元。
The Times first reported detailed allegations contained in the London lawsuit, initially filed in March.
《泰晤士报》(The Times)最早报道了伦敦诉讼案的详细指控内容。该案最初是在3月提起的。
Lloyds, which now owns Bank of Scotland, said in a statement: “We do not believe the claim has any merit and is being contested vigorously.”
目前为苏格兰银行(Bank of Scotland)母公司的劳埃德银行集团在一份声明中表示：“我行不认为本案有任何依据，正在进行有力抗辩。”
The other banks, the BBA and the FDIC declined to comment.
其他银行、英国银行家协会和FDIC都拒绝置评。
