[ by Melanie Gretchen ]

The Royal Bank of Scotland is not discriminatory – especially when it comes to rate manipulation.

RBS has suspended a trader for trying to rig the Singapore dollar swap offer rate, two people briefed on the matter said.  Earlier this year, senior trader Chong Wen Kuang was put on leave for trying to rig the interest rate to benefit his trading position, said the people who asked not to be identified because the bank is probing his actions.

Chong is the first RBS employee to be suspended or fired for attempting to rig a benchmark other than the London interbank offered rate, one of the people said.  Will he be the last?  Just last year, the Edinburgh-based bank fired 4 traders last year for rigging the yen and Swiss franc Libor, and suspended 2, since reinstated, one of the people said.

C-I Note: What are the chances Chong's manipulation is an isolated event?

For further details, go to [Bloomberg, 10/4/12] and [Dealbreaker, 9/26/12].