The Royal Bank of Scotland has been fined $612 million by regulators after an investigation found 21 bank employees tried to rig global benchmark interest rates over a period of four years. 
 
 The settlement with the part-nationalized U.K. bank follows similar deals last year with Swiss bank UBS (UBS) and Barclays (BCLYF), which paid out $1.5 billion and $450 million respectively. 
 
 RBS (RBS) pleaded guilty to wire fraud in Japan, admitted attempting to fix rates to boost trading profits and acknowledged serious failing in its internal controls . 
 
 RBS will pay £87.5 million to the U.K. Financial Services Authority, $325 million to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and $150 million to the U.S. Department of Justice. 
 
 Regulators and law enforcement officials around the world have been investigating the role of at least 14 banks in setting the London Interbank Offered Rate, or Libor, and related interest rates that are used to price financial products worth trillions of dollars. 
 
 Among the banks facing scrutiny are Citigroup (C), Deutsche Bank (DB), JP Morgan (JPM)and HSBC (HBC). 
 
 Authorities in the U.K. and U.S. said there would be no let up in the investigation. 
 
 "These are extraordinary results, and our investigation is far from finished." said U.S. assistant attorney general Lanny Breuer. "Our message is clear: no financial institution is above the law." 
 
 All 21 RBS employees have left the bank or been disciplined, and two managers have been dismissed. The bank's head of investment banking, John Hourican, will also leave. 
 
 While not involved in the Libor affair, Hourican was leaving "in recognition of the management issues identified in relation to this settlement and the impact on the group's reputation," RBS said. 
 
 Barclays admitted last June to attempting to manipulate the rate to make the bank appear stronger during the financial crisis, and to benefit trading positions. Its chairman and CEO paid for the scandal with their jobs. 
 
 Related: Misconduct costs Barclays another $1.6 billion 
 
 UBS was found to have attempted to rig rates on hundreds of occasions over a period of 10 years. It made corrupt payments to outside brokers for help. Two former UBS traders face criminal charges in the U.S. 
 
 Libor is a collection of rates generated for various currencies across 15 different time periods. The quotes are used as benchmarks for an estimated $10 trillion in loans and $350 trillion in derivatives. For example, the interest on your mortgage might be based on a Libor rate plus 2%. 
 
 The banks that set Libor are also facing legal action from plaintiffs who claim they lost money on Libor-related investments due to the manipulation. 
 
 Related: Cases against UBS traders tip of the iceberg 
 
 The U.K. government owns just over 81% of Royal Bank of Scotland after it spent some $70 billion to prevent the bank collapsing during the financial crisis. It made clear it expected RBS investment bankers, not taxpayers, to feel the pain of the Libor fine in the form of reduced or withheld bonuses. 
 
 RBS said it was cutting bonus payments by about $468 million to help pay for the penalties. Bonuses have been clawed back from staff and managers involved, supervisors with responsibility for the business and more broadly across the bank, particularly in its investment banking division. 
 
 The bank misled U.K. regulators in March 2011 when asked specifically about its systems for supervising Libor submissions. 
 
 "The FSA takes it very seriously when firms tell us that they have appropriate systems but do not," said Tracey McDermott, director of enforcement and financial crime. 
 
 The U.K. government is implementing the findings of a review of Libor, which include transferring responsibility for the rate-setting process from the British Bankers' Association, a trade group, to a new administrator regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. 

 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Stephen Hester: "RBS is getting over its legacy, but there are still things to be done" 
 
 Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has been fined £390m ($610m) by UK and US authorities for its part in the Libor rate-fixing scandal. 
 
 The UK's Financial Services Authority issued a fine of £87.5m, while about £300m will be paid to US regulators and the US Department of Justice. 
 
 The fines are £100m greater than those issued to banking rival Barclays last year for similar offences. 
 
 RBS chairman Sir Philip Hampton said it was a "sad day" for the bank. 
 
 Chancellor George Osborne called the behaviour of traders "totally unacceptable" and said the bank, rather than taxpayers, would be paying the fines. 
 
 RBS is still 81% owned by the taxpayer, four years on from a massive government bailout. 
 
 The bank said that the £300m owed to US authorities would be paid using money clawed back from bonuses already paid, and reductions to future bonuses. 
 
 Last year Barclays was fined £290m and Swiss bank UBS will pay out £940m to regulators for its Libor manipulation offences. 
 
 RBS said it had uncovered wrongdoing by 21 employees, who had now been disciplined or left the bank. 
 
 'Widespread misconduct' 
 
 "There were serious shortcomings in our systems and controls and also in the integrity of a small group of our employees," Sir Philip said in a statement. 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption FSA's head of enforcement Tracey McDermott says there was "extensive wrongdoing" at RBS 
 
 "We have to fix the culture in the banking industry... the board has used all means possible to ensure the gravity of this issue is reflected in the remuneration received by employees." 
 
 Speaking to the BBC, chief executive Stephen Hester said the wrongdoing by a small number of individuals needed to be "a part of RBS's past and not its future". 
 
 "We must be absolutely clear - this is not acceptable," he said. "The journey of recovering from its past legacy is not finished." 
 
 The FSA revealed that the bank qualified for a 30% discount on its fine because it agreed to settle at an early stage of the investigation. Without the discount the fine would have been £125m. 
 
 It said the misconduct at RBS was "widespread" and had involved "a number of employees and occurred over a number of years". 
 
 Investigators found that RBS traders colluded with other traders to try to fix Libor rates between 2006 and 2010. 
 
 The practice was designed to make money by investing in interest rate swaps - financial instruments which allow you to bet on interest rates, which can be influenced by the Libor rate. 
 
 Guilty plea 
 
 Crisis jargon buster Use the dropdown for easy-to-understand explanations of key financial terms: AAA-rating AAA-rating The best credit rating that can be given to a borrower's debts, indicating that the risk of borrowing defaulting is minuscule. 
 
 At RBS, traders in multiple offices around the world were involved, including London, Singapore and Tokyo. They focused on the manipulation of yen and Swiss franc Libor rates, using instant messaging systems to communicate with other traders. 
 
 According to the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), which hit RBS with a £208m fine, RBS made hundreds of attempts to manipulate the rates and succeeded on a number of occasions. 
 
 It said Libor rate-fixing continued at RBS, even after traders learned that regulators had opened investigations into the bank. 
 
 RBS's Japanese subsidiary has pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud relating to the manipulation as part of the settlement with US regulators. 
 
 The bank has entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the US Department of Justice on other charges. 
 
 The head of RBS's investment banking arm, John Hourican, will also leave the bank, it has been confirmed. 
 
 The case is another blow to RBS, which is still recovering from the financial crisis that left it on the verge of collapse in 2008. 
 
 More than four years on from a massive government bailout, the bank is still 81% owned by the taxpayer.
– Royal Bank of Scotland is the latest bank to owe big following the Libor rate-fixing scandal. The British institution has been fined a total of $612 million to US and British regulators: some $325 million to the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission, $150 million to the Justice Department, and the rest to the UK Financial Services Authority, CNNMoney reports. The money going to US authorities will come from already-paid bonuses, the BBC reports. The bank attempted to manipulate rates hundreds of times, US officials say. The total fine is $162 million more than Barclays paid in the scandal, but far less than UBS' $1.5 billion. RBS says it has identified 21 guilty employees and all have either exited or been disciplined. Two managers have been let go, and the bank's investment head is also set to leave. "There were serious shortcomings in our systems and controls and also in the integrity of a small group of our employees," says bank chair Sir Philip Hampton. "We have to fix the culture in the banking industry." The bank got a 30% discount on its UK fine because it settled early, British regulators say.