* Under investigation in US, UK, Japan, Europe and Canada
* RBS says it can't measure likely level of fines
* CEO says issue caused by individuals, not systemic
* Shares up 4.2 percent
* Takes 125 mln stg charge after IT failure
LONDON, Aug 3 (Reuters) - Royal Bank of Scotland
confirmed for the first time on Friday it had dismissed staff
over an interest rate rigging scandal but the bank gave no
indication whether it might settle soon with investigators.
Reporting a drop in first-half operating profit, RBS said it
was co-operating with governments and regulators which are
investigating the role of a number of banks in the setting of
Libor and other inter-bank lending rates.
"I think that the regulators must decide how they want to
deal with the situation. We will stand up and take any
punishment that comes our way," Chief Executive Stephen Hester
said. He said he believed the Libor issue had been a result of
"wrongdoing by individuals" rather than a "systemic problem"
within the industry.
"The Libor situation is a stark reminder of the damage that
individual wrongdoing and inadequate systems and controls can
have in terms of financial and reputational impact."
The Libor scandal has already cost the chief executive of
rival Barclays Bob Diamond his job.
RBS said it was being investigated by regulators in the
United States, Britain and Japan and by competition authorities
in Europe, the United States and Canada. It said it was not
possible to measure reliably what effect the investigations
would have, including the timing and amount of fines or
settlements.
Rival Barclays was fined $453 million last month by
U.S. and UK regulators after staff reported false interbank
rates - the interest charged when banks lend to each other -
that were above or below the real rates. Rates reported by a
panel of banks are used to calculate Libor (London Interbank
Offered Rate).
RBS has declined to name the dismissed staff. However
sources with knowledge of the matter said last month that RBS
had fired four traders. They said Tan Chi Min, Paul White, Neil
Danziger and investment adviser Andrew Hamilton were sacked at
the end of last year. None was available for comment.
New details from court documents and sources suggest that
groups of traders working at three major European banks,
including RBS were heavily involved.
Tan, the former head of delta trading for RBS in Singapore,
was fired in November for allegedly trying to influence the
banks' rate setters improperly. He is suing RBS for unfair
dismissal, alleging the practice of traders providing input to
rate setters was widely known among senior managers at the bank.
Thomson Reuters Corp is the British Bankers'
Association's official agent for the daily calculation and
publishing of Libor.
HESTER UNDER PRESSURE
The Libor scandal has heaped pressure on Hester, who was
appointed CEO four years ago to rebuild the bank and its
reputation after a bailout in 2008 during the financial crisis.
RBS, now 82 percent-owned by the government, reported a
first-half operating profit of 1.83 billion pounds ($2.8
billion), down from 1.97 billion in the same period last year.
The bank made a statutory pretax loss of 1.5 billion pounds,
which included a 2.9 billion pounds accounting loss due to a
rise in the value of its own debt.
In January, RBS finally abandoned ambitions to be a top
global investment bank, bowing to pressure from the government
to shut down risky operations and prepare for tougher
international regulations.
It aims to cut the balance sheet of its former global
banking and markets business by 120 billion pounds to 300
billion in the next three years.
The bank said it had offloaded 22 billion pounds worth of
non-core assets during the first half.
There was speculation this week the UK might fully
nationalise RBS to force it to lend more to business but British
government sources told Reuters on Thursday that there were no
such plans.
Hester said he had had no conversations with government
ministers on the issue.
"While MPs and regulators focus their energies on sound-bites
and gesture-politics, RBS management continues to make useful
progress in terms of balance sheet repair," said Investec
analyst Ian Gordon.
RBS said it still planned to exit the Asset Protection
Scheme (APS) insurance mechanism this year, which would help
pave the way for an eventual sale of the government's stake.
RBS was put into the APS after the government bailed it out
at a cost of 45 billion pounds. The scheme protects the bank
against major defaults on its most toxic assets. By the end of
September, RBS will have paid the minimum fee of 2.5 billion
pounds and can ask for clearance to leave.
Shares in RBS were up 4.2 percent to 213.1 pence at 1345GMT,
with Europe's bank index up 3.8 percent. That still
leaves taxpayers sitting on a loss of 26 billion pounds.
CATALOGUE OF MISHAPS
RBS and many other UK banks are facing a bill running into
billions of pounds to address claims of mis-selling various
financial products.
Oriel Securities analyst Mike Trippitt said potential
litigation charges and sanctions by regulators were "significant
investment distractions."
RBS said it had set aside a further 135 million pounds to
compensate customers mis-sold loan insurance, taking its total
provision so far to 1.3 billion pounds. It also set aside 50
million pound for claims by small firms wrongly mis-sold
interest rate hedging products, a provision which Hester
admitted could rise higher.
RBS said it had taken a 125 million-pound hit from costs
arising from a computer systems failure in June which prevented
customers using their accounts, and could face additional costs
when the full scale of the disruption becomes clear.
Regulators in Britain and Ireland were looking into the
incident and RBS could face legal claims from customers affected
by the glitch which resulted in payments not being processed
properly. The bank commissioned an independent review into the
fiasco and will publish its findings, Hester said.
