What changed
The UK Court of Appeal has quashed Christian Bittar’s conviction for manipulating Euribor, the benchmark interest rate. The former Deutsche Bank trader, who was jailed in 2018, watched the proceedings by video link from Switzerland.
The ruling follows the overturning of five former Barclays bankers’ convictions earlier this week. Of 19 traders convicted in UK and US rate-rigging trials, 18 have now been acquitted; former Barclays trader Peter Johnson is the only one still convicted, and he has applied to appeal.
Why it matters
This is no longer just one banker’s legal victory. It is a sweeping reversal of the criminal cases built around the Libor and Euribor scandals, benchmarks used to set interest rates on millions of mortgages and commercial loans.
For Bittar and his family, the decision closes a 15-year period marked by imprisonment and what his wife described as children growing up under the shadow of the conviction. For the courts and financial regulators, it leaves a much harder question: how did so many convictions survive for so long if the underlying cases were vulnerable?
The ruling’s detailed reasoning is not yet reported, and it does not establish whether damages will follow. It has nevertheless intensified calls from lawyers and senior politicians for the Bank of England and the Treasury to release records about their roles during the financial crisis. Allegations that evidence involving central banks and governments was suppressed remain unresolved.
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