Barclays' senior management directed traders and employees in New York, London and Tokyo to manipulate "benchmark interest rates to benefit the bank's derivatives trading positions," according to prepared remarks of Gary Gensler, the chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Gensler, scheduled to appear Tuesday morning before the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, wrote that "Submitters were told not to submit at levels where Barclays was 'sticking its head above the parapet.' The senior management directive was intended to fend off negative public perception about Barclays' financial condition," according to his prepared remarks.

Barclays agreed to pay authorities in the United States and the United Kingdom more than $450 million for manipulating the London Interbank Offered Rate, or LIBOR.  Financial companies around the world use the LIBOR to determine interest rates for mortgages, bonds, credit cards and other products.