Congressional committees conducting inquiries into British rate-fixing scandal

By Martin Crutsinger

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON — Two congressional committees are raising questions about what U.S. regulators knew concerning allegations that a key global interest rate was being manipulated.

The chairman of a House Financial Services oversight subcommittee has asked the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to provide transcripts of discussions between Fed officials and the British bank Barclays regarding the setting of interest rates from September 2007 to November 2009. The New York Fed says it will comply with the request.

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Johnson says he is also concerned about the allegations and has asked staffers to begin gathering information.

Barclays has been fined $453 million by U.S. and British authorities for supplying false data which went into calculations of the London interbank offered rate, LIBOR, a key global interest rate.

13:21ET 10-07-12