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UK to extend Libor manipulation laws to cover seven more benchmarks


    LONDON (Reuters) - Britain will extend laws which make the manipulation of market benchmarks a criminal offense to cover a further seven benchmarks including the main foreign exchange and overnight interest rate fixes, the government said on Monday.

    "Ensuring that the key rates that underpin financial markets here and around the world are robust, and that anyone who seeks to manipulate them is subject to the full force of the law, is an important part of our long-term economic plan," finance minister George Osborne said in a statement.

    The extension of the law, which was originally introduced to cover the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor) after a manipulation scandal, would come into effect in on April 1 2015, the finance ministry said.

    (Reporting by William James; editing by William Schomberg)