“Employees of some of the world’s largest financial institutions conspired with a former bank trader to rig benchmark interest rates, British prosecutors alleged Thursday, a sign authorities have their sights on an array of banks and brokerages.

“The U.K.’s Serious Fraud Office this week charged former UBS AG and Citigroup Inc. trader Tom Hayes with eight counts of “conspiring to defraud” in an alleged attempt to manipulate the London interbank offered rate, or Libor. Mr. Hayes appeared in a London court Thursday, where prosecutors for the first time detailed their allegations against him, including a list of institutions whose employees Mr. Hayes allegedly conspired with.

“Mr. Hayes, who was charged with similar offenses by the U.S. last December, hasn’t entered a plea to either country’s charges. He wrote in a January text message to The Wall Street Journal that ‘this goes much much higher than me.'”

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