The Swiss competition commission wanted to conclude its investigation into the manipulation of the Libor rate by the end of December 2015. It won't be able to keep to the timetable, the authority told finews.ch.

The competition commission has plenty to do: today it fined the biggest Swiss telecom provider, Swisscom to the tune of 7.9 million francs for abusing its dominant position in the mobile communications market in Switzerland.

The commission intended to reach a decision in the investigation into the biggest financial scandal of the recent past in coming weeks. In spring it said it wanted to finish investigating the manipulation of the Libor rate, a probe that is directed at a whole range of banks, by the end of the year.

The task for the commission was Herculian given the complexity of its nature and the tight resources it has.

Examination of Last Elements

The banks under investigation will have to wait for the verdict a little while longer. «The decision in the Libor-case will most probably not be made this year,» Olivier Schaller, vice-director at the commission, told finews.ch.

Schaller also said that the investigation into the manipulation of the Libor, Tibor and Euribor was at an advanced stage. «We are currently examining the last elements of the case before reaching our verdict,» he said.

Exchange Rate Manipulation

The vice-director didn't want to speculate about when this might be the case. His team of experts also has to deal with an equally challenging case of exchange rate manipulations.

The commission is investigating a large number of foreign banks as well as UBS and Credit Suisse, Switzerland's two biggest financial institutes and Gottex Brokers Holding.

Credit Suisse throughout the investigation maintained it plea of innocence, while UBS reported itself to the commission. UBS will thus be exempt from punishment, but was part of a record fine of 1.4 billion francs agreed in a settlement with a number of authorities in 2012.