LONDON, July 30: Royal Bank of Scotland faces the prospect of fines linked to the Libor interest rate-rigging scandal, chief executive Stephen Hester said in a newspaper interview published on Monday.

“RBS is one of the banks tied up in Libor. We’ll have our day in that particular spotlight as well,” Hester told The Guardian newspaper.

Hester said he was not aware of the size of the RBS fine but added that the investigation by British regulator, the Financial Services Authority was “in process.” RBS, which is 82-per cent government-owned after a vast bailout at the height of the global financial crisis, will report its first-half results on Friday.

In June, Barclays became the first bank to be fined as part of a global probe into suspected manipulation of the twin interest rates that are crucial to the operation of short-term financing and global markets. Barclays was fined £290 million by British and US regulators for attempted manipulation of Libor and Euribor interbank interest rates between 2005 and 2009.

The fallout saw the resignations of three Barclay’s executives, including CEO Bob Diamond and some analysts are predicting that Barclays could face lawsuits costing it billions of pounds (dollars) in costs and fines.

Hester told The Guardian that the Libor fines would centre on the conduct of a “handful” of employees at the affected banks.

“Even though, when all the Libor (fines) are out, most of it is going to be around the wrongdoings of a handful of people at a number of banks,” he told the newspaper. —AFP