Credit Agricole says not accused of Libor wrongdoing

Credit Agricole said on Thursday it had not been accused of any wrongdoing related to the attempted manipulation of benchmark lending rates by Barclays, adding it had responded to requests for information from “various authorities.”

The French bank added in a statement that it was not a contributor to the London interbank offered rate, or Libor, between 2005 and 2009. A report in Thursday’s Financial Times referred to allegations of manipulation both of Libor and its European equivalent, Euribor, between 2006 and 2008.

Credit Agricole said it had only become a Libor panel contributor in November 2010.

Libor, compiled from estimates by big banks of how much they believe they have to pay to borrow from each other, is used for $550 trillion of interest rate derivatives contracts and influences rates on mortgages, student loans and credit cards.

Dozens of banks, including JPMorgan Chase & Co and Deutsche Bank, are under investigation in a rate-rigging scandal, where banks low-balled the rate to profit on trades and hide their own borrowing costs during the 2007-09 financial crisis.

Barclays has already settled with U.S. and British regulators, paying a $453 million penalty.

Credit Agricole’s larger rival Societe Generale, also mentioned in the FT report, said on Wednesday it had been contacted as part of the Libor and Euribor probes but that there had so far been no allegation of wrongdoing against it.

According to the report, traders from Socgen, HSBC, Deutsche Bank and Credit Agricole were linked with a Barclays trader under scrutiny for the alleged manipulation.

HSBC and Deutsche Bank declined to comment.

Societe Generale first disclosed in March that it had received requests for information from U.S. and European regulators looking into Euribor.

Sources have told Reuters that the European Central Bank is putting pressure on the organizers of Euribor to share up faith in the euro benchmark in the wake of the Libor scandal.

Libor rates submitted by banks are compiled by Thomson Reuters, parent company of Reuters, on behalf of the British Bankers’ Association.