Britain's financial regulator said it had prioritised the worst cases of Libor benchmark interest rate fixing, providing a signal that the largest fines for banks' alleged role in the scandal may already have been levied. Ten banks and brokers have paid around $6 billion to date to settle U.S. and European regulatory allegations that they manipulated rates such as Libor (London interbank offered rate), a benchmark against which around $450 trillion of financial products from derivatives to home loans are priced worldwide. The market has long been braced for similar settlements with Lloyds and Deutsche Bank, which has already been fined by the European Commission over alleged involvement in benchmark interest rate cartels. Industry sources say these two investigations are slowly nearing conclusion. Martin Wheatley, the chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), said outstanding settlements had been delayed because some investigations had gone beyond Libor and because
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