A senior banker from a leading British bank pleaded guilty to conspiring to manipulate London interbank offered rates in a UK court last week. The individual, who can’t be identified by order of the judge today, is the first to plead guilty in the UK Serious Fraud Office’s interest-rate rigging investigation. Twelve have been charged in connection to the UK case.

The SFO released a statement today confirming the plea and saying it couldn’t comment further on the matter for legal reasons. Authorities around the world have been investigating the rigging of interbank offered rates, benchmarks used to calculate more than $300 trillion of securities, including mortgages, credit cards, student loans and other consumer lending products.

Two individuals have pleaded guilty this year to Libor- manipulation charges in the US. The first trial for an individual trader in the global probes is set to take place in London next year. The banker who pleaded guilty in the UK will be sentenced later. The plea marks the first success in what SFO Director David Green said last week is a "watershed" moment for the agency as the first cases initiated under his watch come to trial. The prosecutor has faced criticism after a number of cases taken on by his predecessor failed.

Bloomberg