A senior employee from a leading UK bank has pleaded guilty to a Libor-fixing conspiracy charge brought by the Serious Fraud Office.

The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, faces up to 10 years in jail. On Friday he became the first banker to plead guilty to criminal manipulation of Libor in Britain. Reporting restrictions were partially lifted on Tuesday.

Trillions of dollars of loans and credit derivatives are priced with reference to benchmark interest rates, published every day in London and known as Libor, or the London interbank offered rate.

Suggestions that this rate – which purports to represent the price banks would be prepared to lend to one another – had been manipulated by some of the world’s biggest lenders was a major blow to the reputation of London as a leading financial centre.

Since at least 2012 regulators and prosecutors in Europe, North America and Asia have been investigating separate allegations of Libor manipulation plots. Billions of dollars of fines have been imposed on a string of banks implicated in the scandal.

The SFO has been investigating alleged Libor rigging since 2012 and has been given additional funds to pursue this complex inquiry by the chancellor, George Osborne.

So far, SFO charges have been brought in relation to several cases of alleged Libor fixing. Among those to be charged was Tom Hayes a former trader at UBS and Citigroup, followed by two men formerly at the interbank money brokerage RP Martin. Hayes has pleaded not guilty and his trial is expected to start in January. The two ex-RP Martin brokers have pleaded not guilty.

Three former staff at Icap, another interbank brokerage, have also been charged. In the US, two former employees of the Dutch bank Rabobank have pleaded guilty to involvement in Libor rigging.