BUSINESS BRIEF
Fannie sues 9 top banks for rigging of LIBOR
11/1/2013WASHINGTON — Fannie Mae filed a lawsuit Thursday against nine major banks alleging the mortgage giant lost hundreds of millions after the banks participated in the rigging of a key global interest rate.
The banks include Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., and others that set the London interbank offered rate, or LIBOR. It is the basis for trillions of dollars in contracts, including mortgages and bonds.
Fannie claims it suffered $800 million in losses from transactions based on the banks’ false submissions of their borrowing costs used to set LIBOR. Four of the banks sued — two British, one Swiss, and one Dutch — have been fined $3.6 billion by U.S. and British regulators for manipulating LIBOR.
Fannie’s smaller sibling, Freddie Mac, filed similar suits against 15 LIBOR-setting banks in March.