Bank fines set to help boost army barracks

Weeton Barracks Community Centre and Fulwood Barracks are among the latest to benefit from the government’s Libor Funding Scheme.

The Army Welfare Service will get £59,781 to upgrade Weeton Barracks Community Centre’s welfare facilities and £62,000 to improve community welfare facilities at Fulwood Barracks.

The fund was set up in 2012 using fines levied on the banking industry for manipulating the Libor rate to support armed forces and emergency services charities.

The Libor scandal was a series of fraudulent actions connected to the London Interbank Offered Rate, or Libor, and also the resulting investigation and reaction.

It arose when it was discovered that banks were falsely inflating or deflating their rates to profit from trades, or give the impression they were more creditworthy than they were.

With £773 million committed since 2012, the Libor grant scheme is now closed.

A spokesman from the Treasury said: “In 2012 we arranged that all the money we take from Libor fines would be assigned to military and armed forces charities with good causes.”