European Union negotiators reached a deal in the early hours of Wednesday on new rules to prevent the rigging of market benchmarks, after banks' attempted manipulation of the Libor and Euribor interest rates indexes.

The EU executive arm had proposed stricter rules in 2013 but concerns about the impact of the new regulation, notably on the use of US benchmarks in Europe, delayed talks.

The deal struck on Wednesday between EU politicians, the European Commission and representatives of EU states "will allow third country indices to continue being used in the European Union ... while ensuring that European benchmark administrators will not be disadvantaged", a statement from the Luxembourg government, which holds the rotating presidency of the EU, said.

Reuters