Euribor rigging: Former Deutsche, Barclays and SocGen employees appear in UK court

A group of former bankers are set to appear in Westminster Magistrates' court today (11 January) charged with alleged Euribor rigging. 11 former City employees will be the first to face a UK jury over the rigging of the Euribor rate.

Across the world, investigations have already resulted in banks paying out fines totalling $9bn (£6.19bn, €8.25bn). 30 people have already been charged with Euribor rigging conspiracies, and now former Deutsche Bank, Barclays and Societe Generale employees are set to appear in the docks. The Euribor scandal was first uncovered during the financial crash in 2008, when US regulators launched several probes.

The Euro Interbank Offered Rate (Euribor) is the "rate at which Euro interbank term deposits are offered by one prime bank to another prime bank within the European Monetary Union zone." The rates form a vital basis for European banks to calculate lending decisions in a market worth billions of euros.

Christian Bittar, a Frenchman who worked in Singapore for Deutsche Bank, is among the German financial firm's employees to appear in Westminster today. His former colleagues Kai-Uwe Kappauf, Achim Kreamer, Joerg Vogt, Andreas Haschild and Ardalan Ghargozlou will join him.

French finance worker Stephane Esper will be the only former Societe Generale banker.

From Barlcays, two UK nationals will appear in the dock. Colin Bermingham and Dane Sisse Bohart will be joined by Philippe Moryoussef and British Italian Carlo Palombo. The British bank has already paid $450m in fines following a settlement with regulators in 2012. Barclays admitted its bankers had conspired to rig different offered interest rates.

This will be the fourth rate rigging case launched by US finance regulator, the Serious Fraud Office (SFO). Numerous Libor (London Interbank Offered Rate) and Euribor rigging cases followed banking collapse of 2008. UBS, Lloyds, JPMorgan, Citigroup and ICAP have all previously been fined.