Two former Deutsche Bank traders face US criminal charges for allegedly trying to manipulate the Libor benchmark interest rate, including the first American trader to be charged by US authorities in connection with the years-long probe.

Matthew Connolly, 51 years old, former head of the bank's pool trading desk in New York, and Gavin Campbell Black, 46, a former derivatives trader in London, were accused of trying to rig the London interbank offered rate, an interest rate benchmark, between 2005 and 2011 to benefit the bank's trading positions, according to an indictment unsealed on June 2.