CREDIT MARKETS

Qatar Joins Gulf Debt-Sale Parade

Qatar, which owns some of the world's largest gas reserves, sold $9 billion worth of bonds in multiyear tranches, Wednesday the latest Persian Gulf state to tap the international capital markets to shore up government finances crippled by low energy prices.

Qatar's return to the markets follows the example of the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, which earlier this year sold around $6 billion worth of bonds. Saudi Arabia also is expected to tap the international bond markets later this year. It already secured a $10 billion bank loan with the help of international lenders earlier this year.

There has been a flurry of debt sales in recent weeks, as issuers want to wrap up their financing plans ahead of the start of the Muslim holy month called Ramadan, often a slow time for deal activity in the region.

--Nicolas Parasie, Christopher Whittall

BENCHMARK PROBES

Citigroup Reaches $425 Million Pact

Citigroup Inc. will pay $425 million to end long-running civil probes into the bank's alleged manipulation of benchmarks, becoming the first U.S. bank to resolve claims related to the London interbank offered rate.

The bank agreed to pay $250 million to resolve a claim from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission that it tried to manipulate the ISDAFix benchmark swaps rate, used to settle interest-rate swaps, between 2007 and 2012. It will pay an additional $175 million to resolve claims that it tried to rig the yen Libor and euroyen Tibor interest-rate benchmarks in 2010.

A half-dozen European banks have settled criminal or civil claims tied to Libor rigging, but Citi is the first U.S. bank to do so.

The initial Libor investigations quickly expanded to examine similar patterns in other products. Last May, five global banks including Citi and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. agreed to pay more than $5 billion to resolve probes into whether traders colluded to move foreign currency rates for their own benefit.

"We will vigorously continue to investigate any efforts to manipulate financial benchmarks," the CFTC's enforcement director, Aitan Goelman, said in announcing Wednesday's Citi agreement.

Citigroup said it had adopted "industry-wide reforms" in participating in benchmark rates and made "substantial investments" in controls to monitor for inappropriate behavior. It neither admitted nor denied the agency's findings.

A spokesman said the Justice Department had closed its ISDAfix investigation into Citigroup and said the Libor manipulation probe is ongoing.

--Aruna Viswanatha

 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 26, 2016 02:47 ET (06:47 GMT)

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