Britain's fraud agency has started criminal proceedings against three former bankers of Britain's Barclays for the alleged manipulation of Libor interest rates, it said on Monday.

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) said criminal proceedings had started against Peter Charles Johnson, Jonathan James Mathew and Stylianos Contogoulas, alleging they conspired to defraud between June 2005 and August 2007.

(Read more: Barclays to ax up to 12,000 jobs amid investor anger)

