Sullivan & Cromwell has taken the lead role for Barclays on its $450m (£290m) settlement over charges that it attempted to manipulate interest rates and made false reports to benefit its derivatives trading positions, reports The Blog of Legal Times.

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Department of Justice (DoJ) Criminal Division brought the charges against the bank, with $200m (£130m) of the penalty going to resolve the CFTC's civil case – the agency's biggest-ever fine – and $160m (£100m) to settle the DoJ fraud case.

In addition, the bank will pay £59.5m to resolve charges brought by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) – the largest-ever fine handed down by the UK regulator.

Barclays was represented by a Sullivan team led by New York partners Steven Peikin, David Braff, Jeffrey Scott and special counsel Matthew Fitzwater.

The US firm's role comes after it was added to Barclays' general advisory panel last July alongside Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton and Shearman & Sterling, after a comprehensive panel review intended to increase value for money from the bank's regular advisers.

The charges revolve around Barclays' submissions to the London InterBank Offered Rate (Libor) and the Euro Interbank Offered Rate (Euribor), which are benchmark interest rates used in financial markets around the world. The bank is one of the financial institutions that contribute information used in the calculation of the rates, which are meant to reflect each bank's assessment of the rates at which it could borrow unsecured interbank funds.

The rates "form the basis for hundreds of trillions of dollars of transactions and affect nearly every corner of the global economy," said David Meister, the CFTC's director of enforcement. "Banks that contribute information to those benchmarks must do so honestly. When a bank acts in its own self-interest by attempting to manipulate these rates for profit, or by submitting false reports that result from senior management orders to lower submissions to guard the bank's reputation, the integrity of benchmark interest rates is undermined."

According to the US DoJ, between 2005 and 2007, and at times through 2009, "certain Barclays traders requested that the Barclays Libor and Euribor submitters contribute rates that would benefit the financial positions held by those traders. The requests were made by traders in New York and London, via electronic messages, telephone conversations and in-person conversations."

The CFTC also alleged that from late August 2007 through early 2009, senior executives directed Barclays to routinely make "artificially low Libor submissions to protect Barclays' reputation from negative market and media perceptions concerning Barclays' financial condition."

In a statement, Tracey McDermott, the FSA's acting director of enforcement and financial crime, said: "Barclays' misconduct was serious, widespread and extended over a number of years. The integrity of benchmark reference rates such as Libor and Euribor is of fundamental importance to both UK and international financial markets. Firms making submissions must not use those submissions as tools to promote their own interests.

"The FSA continues to pursue a number of other significant cross-border investigations in this area and the action we have taken against Barclays should leave firms in no doubt about the serious consequences of this type of failure."

Barclays CEO Bob Diamond said that "[t]he events which gave rise to [these] resolutions relate to past actions which fell well short of the standards to which Barclays aspires in the conduct of its business."

In addition to the financial penalty, the CFTC order requires Barclays to cease and desist from further violations and take steps such as making the determinations of benchmark submissions transaction-focused and improve related internal controls.

The US DoJ has also agreed not to pursue a criminal prosecution against Barclays. In a news release, DOJ noted that Barclays was "the first bank to cooperate in a meaningful way." Other large banks are reportedly still under investigation for manipulation of benchmark interest rates.

The Blog of Legal Times is a US affiliate title of Legal Week.