20 December 2012 Last updated at 13:33 ET

Global banking scandals: Who is under scrutiny?

A number of scandals have engulfed the global financial system, and international banks are under investigation by regulators in several countries. They are alleged to have committed offences ranging from trying to fix inter-bank lending rates to failing to stop their banks being used for money laundering. In this guide, we explain who is accused of what by whom.

1. Libor manipulation
	Barclays and UBS have admitted attempting to manipulate the London Interbank Offered Rate, or Libor - the interest rate at which banks lend money to each other At least five more banks are under suspicion of colluding in similar attempted manipulation

The banks	Penalties paid so far	Actions still ongoing
Barclays	A total of more than $450m (£190m) in fines paid to UK and US regulators and the US Department of Justice for attempting to fix Libor rates	UK's Serious Fraud Office (SFO) investigation into the wider Libor scandal still in progress
UBS	$1.5bn paid to US, UK and Swiss regulators to settle allegations it manipulated Libor	SFO investigation into the wider Libor scandal still in progress, and is seeking settlement with the US Department of Justice
Royal Bank of Scotland, HSBC, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan	None	Attorney generals of New York and Connecticut have served subpoenas to these five banks. RBS is expected to fined by regulators in the new year

2. Sanction-breaking and other wrongdoing
	HSBC was fined a record amount by US authorities for failing to stop money being channelled to "drug kingpins and rogue nations" Standard Chartered was fined by US regulators for illegally hiding transactions with Iran, allowing the country to sell its oil for dollars US authorities said Standard Chartered laundered $250bn over nearly a decade, breaking US sanctions

The banks	Penalties paid so far	Actions still ongoing
Standard Chartered	The bank has paid a total of more than $660m to settle charges it violated US sanctions on doing business in Iran, Burma, Libya and Sudan. The money was paid in fines to US regulators and the US Department of Justice	South Korea's Financial Supervisory Service is investigating Standard Chartered's South Korean operations following developments in the US
HSBC	Agreed to pay $1.92bn to settle allegations that it failed to prevent money laundering through its accounts	HSBC said it expects to reach an agreement with the UK's Financial Services Authority on money laundering "shortly", while South Korean regulators are investigating HSBC's Seoul branch
Royal Bank of Scotland	None	RBS is understood to be facing investigations into possible violations of US sanctions on Iran and is co-operating with US and UK authorities after going to them with information found during an internal review
Barclays	None	US authorities are undertaking an investigation into whether Barclays' "relationships with third parties who assist Barclays to win or retain business" are compliant with the United States Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. It is also being investigated over power trading in the west of the US between late 2006 and the end of 2008
Four unnamed European banks	None	US media reports suggest that US agencies and regulators are investigating a total of four European banks for alleged violations of US sanctions on Iran. The inquiry is said to be confidential and its existence has not been officially confirmed

3. Asian interbank rate manipulation
	Regulators in South Korea are investigating alleged interest rate-rigging by at least four banks through certificates of deposit (CD), whose prices are used to set interbank lending rates in a similar way to Libor Regulators in Singapore and Japan are also making similar checks on their banks following the Libor scandal

The Banks	Penalties paid so far	Actions still ongoing
UBS	None	Hong Kong regulators have launched an investigation into "possible misconduct" by UBS in submissions for Hong Kong's inter-bank lending rate
Kookmin, Shinhan, Woori and Hana banking groups, South Korea	None made public	South Korea's Fair Trade Commission is inspecting nine banks within these banking groups seeking evidence of collusion on CD rates and possible rate fixing
Unnamed Japanese banks	None	The Japanese Bankers Association asked 18 banks to inspect their procedures for submitting yen-denominated inter-bank rates, amid suggestions of possible collusion between banks
Unnamed banks	None made public	The Singapore Monetary Authority is investigating how unnamed banks set "key market interest rate benchmarks", according to Bloomberg