Lawyers for Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and other financial institutions fighting antitrust claims over the London interbank offered rate told a federal judge that setting the rate isn't a competitive process.

The banks asked U.S. District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald in Manhattan today to dismiss lawsuits accusing the banks of manipulating Libor — a key metric for setting interest rates for trillions of dollars in financial instruments.

Libor fixes the rates under which banks lend money to one another for as little as a day and as long as a year. Rates for 10 different currencies including the U.S. dollar, Japanese yen and British pound are computed daily after canvassing banks that comprise membership panels for each type of money.