Here is a roundup of compliance news in the world of wealth management.

Credit Suisse
A former Credit Suisse banker has pleaded guilty to conspiring with US taxpayers and other Swiss bankers to defraud the US by concealing assets and income in secret bank accounts. 

According to the statement of facts and the plea agreement, Susanna Meier admitted that between 2002 and 2011 while working as team head of Credit Suisse's Zurich team on the North American desk in Swizterland, she participated in a “wide-ranging” conspiracy to help US clients evade income taxes by storing their assets in secret Swiss bank accounts. 

She was responsible for supervising and servicing accounts involving around 1,000 to 1,500 client relationships. Meier also personally handled 140 to 140 clients' accounts which had asets under management of around $400 million. 

The former banker admitted that the tax loss because of her criminal conduct amounted to between $3.5 million and $9.5 million. 

Sentencing is scheduled for September 8, 2017. 

Credit Suisse pleaded guilty in May 2014 for conspiring to aid and assist taxpayers in filing false returns, and was ordered in November 2014 to pay more than $2 billion in fines and restitution. 

JP Morgan, Deutsche Bank
Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan have agreed to pay a total of $148 million to draw a line under claims they plotted to fiddle the benchmark yen-Libor interbank rate and said they will work with investors suing other banks, Bloomberg reported. This news service has contacted both banks for comment and may update in due course. Investors including Sonterra Capital Master Fund, Hayman Capital Management and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System sued 21 banks and three brokerage firms in federal court in New York in July 2015, accusing them of manipulating the rate from 2006 to 2011.

Deutsche Bank will pay $77 million and JP Morgan $71 million under the settlements, which were outlined in court documents filed late last week, the news-wire reported; it went on to say that neither company admitted wrongdoing under the agreements, which must still be approved by a judge. It said Deutsche Bank declined to comment. Over recent years a raft of banks have paid heavy sums, stretching to billions of dollars or the equivalent currency, to settle claims that the London Interbank Offered Rate, or LIBOR, had been manipulated. One consequence has been a flurry of class-action lawsuits. The saga has seen senior-level changes at some banks and recruitment of new compliance personnel and calls for the whole interbank system to be changed. 

The world’s largest banks have paid billions of dollars in fines over the last five years to settle allegations of rigging the London interbank offered rate, a key financial benchmark used to set interest rates. Class-action lawsuits filed by investors and regulators are still making their way through the courts.