Was Today The Most Miserable Day in RBS History?

Britain’s Royal Bank of Scotland (NYSE:RBS) has followed Barclays (NYSE:BCS) and UBS (NYSE:UBS) in settling Libor manipulation allegations. A total of 12 banks were accused by British and American regulators of rigging the London Interbank Offered Rate, which is used to price trillions of dollars worth of loans worldwide.

For its role, RBS was given a fine of $615 million. While the bank was required to plead guilty to wire fraud in Japan in order to settle allegations that it manipulated the global benchmark for interest rates, it did not have to admit criminal liability, which saved the bank’s American operations; if RBS made such an admission, it would have lost its banking license and been forced to sell its chain of Citizens banks.

“The RBS board acknowledges that there were serious shortcomings in our systems and controls and also in the integrity of a small group of our employees,” Chairman Philip Hampton said in a statement made on Wednesday. “This is a sad day for RBS, but also an important one in continuing to put right the mistakes of the past,” he added…