Why Barclays (BCS) Stock Is Declining Today
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Shares of Barclays (BCS) - Get Report are slumping 5.46% to $7.18 in mid-afternoon trading on Tuesday after three former employees were found guilty of conspiring to manipulate Libor interest rates between 2005 and 2007.
British citizens Jonathan Mathew and Jay Merchant as well as American Alex Pabon were convicted after an 11-week trial, the Wall Street Journal reports.
The case centered on allegations that the defendants colluded to rig U.S. dollar rates of Libor, or the London interbank offered rate, to their or Barclays's financial benefit.
Libor is used by banks to set interest rates on trillions of dollars in securities and loans.
Merchant and Pabon were Libor traders, while Mathew was a submitter in the daily London rate-setting process. The jury was unable to reach verdicts for two of their co-defendants, Stylianos Contogoulas and Ryan Michael Reich.