Is Interest Rate Manipulation Everywhere?

Manipulation of interest rate benchmarks is all the rage these days.

The Royal Bank of Scotland (NYSE:RBS), Barclays (NYSE:BCS), and UBS (NYSE:UBS) have all settled allegations with regulators in the United States and Great Britain for rigging the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor), which is used to price trillions of dollars worth of loans worldwide. A total of 12 banks have been implicated in that scandal.

But the Euro Interbank Offered Rate (Euribor) appeared to be too tempting to pass up as well. Euribor is a daily reference rate based on the averaged interest rates at which euro-zone banks lend unsecured funds to other banks in the euro zone.

Five traders on Deutsche Bank’s (NYSE:DB) money market team have been suspended on suspicions of inappropriate behavior following an internal investigation into a possible manipulation of the benchmark, Reuters reported on Wednesday. A source familiar with the matter informed the publication that the investigation dates back to January, but gave no further details…