LONDON â€" A former trader at UBS and Citigroup pleaded not guilty Tuesday to allegations that he manipulated a key benchmark interest rate known as Libor.
The trader, Tom Hayes, was the first person in Britain to be charged criminally in the scandal surrounding the London interbank offered rate, or Libor. He is separately facing criminal charges in the United States.
Mr. Hayes and two former traders at the brokerage firm RP Martin, Terry J. Farr and James A. Gilmour, entered not guilty pleas in Southwark Crown Court in London in charges brought by Britain’s Serious Fraud Office. Mr. Hayes is the first expected to go to trial in 2015.
Some of the world’s largest banks, including UBS, Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland, have been caught up in the scandal and agreed to pay billions of dollars to settle allegations with regulators in Britain, the United States and elsewhere.
British prosecutors have previously said they have identified 22 individuals as potential co-conspirators in the matter.
Earlier this month, European Union antitrust regulators agree to settle with eight banks over alleged collusion to manipulate Libor related to the Japanese yen and the euro interbank offered rate, or Euribor. Six of the banks agreed to pay a combined 1.7 billion euros, or about $2.34 billion.
JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup were the first American banks to be fined in the scandal as part of the European Union settlement.
Five financial institutions, including Barclays, UBS and R.B.S., have paid a combined $3 billion to settle with American and British regulators.
