Jury out in trial of city trader

The jury in the London trial of former trader, Tom Hayes, who is charged with eight counts of conspiracy to defraud, by manipulating global Libor interest rates, retired yesterday to consider its verdict, after hearing nine weeks of evidence.

Mr Hayes, a 35-year-old former UBS and Citigroup yen derivatives trader, based in Tokyo, pleaded not guilty to charges he conspired to rig the London interbank offered rate (Libor), a benchmark for $450tn of financial contracts and loans worldwide, between 2006 and 2010.

The UK’s Serious Fraud Office alleges he set up a network of brokers and traders that spanned 10 of the world’s most powerful financial institutions, cajoling and, at times, bribing them to help rig rates — designed to reflect the cost of inter-bank borrowing — for profit.