Mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may have lost up to $3 billion from the ma­nipu­la­tion by several big banks of the global interest rate known as Libor, according to an internal government memo.

That was just one more sign Wednesday of the growing rate-fixing scandal, as federal prosecutors and regulators also announced that Swiss banking giant UBS had agreed to pay $1.5 billion in fines for manipulating the rate. U.S. authorities also filed criminal charges against two UBS employees, the first individuals targeted by the widening investigation.

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