The Economist reports that the LIBOR scandal is more widespread and has been going on longer than was first realized.
Barclays has tried its best to present these incidents as the actions of a few rogue traders. Yet the brazenness with which employees on various Barclays trading floors colluded, both with one another and with traders from other banks, suggests that this sort of behaviour was, if not widespread, at least widely tolerated. Traders happily put in writing requests that were either illegal or, at the very least, morally questionable. In one instance a trader would regularly shout out to colleagues that he was trying to manipulate the rate to a particular level, to check whether they had any conflicting requests.
The FSA has identified price-rigging dating back to 2005, yet some current and former traders say that problems go back much further than that. “Fifteen years ago the word was that LIBOR was being rigged,” says one industry veteran closely involved in the LIBOR process. “It was one of those well kept secrets, but the regulator was asleep, the Bank of England didn’t care and…[the banks participating were] happy with the reference prices.” Says another: “Going back to the late 1980s, when I was a trader, you saw some pretty odd fixings…With traders, if you don’t actually nail it down, they’ll steal it.”
And for breadth…
Regulators around the world have woken up, however belatedly, to the possibility that these vital markets may have been rigged by a large number of banks. The list of institutions that have said they are either co-operating with investigations or being questioned includes many of the world’s biggest banks. Among those that have disclosed their involvement are Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, JPMorgan Chase, RBS and UBS.
Court documents filed by Canada’s Competition Bureau have also aired allegations by traders at one unnamed bank, which has applied for immunity, that it had tried to influence some LIBOR rates in co-operation with some employees of Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, ICAP, JPMorgan Chase and RBS. It is not clear whether employees of these banks actually co-operated or, if they did, whether they succeeded in manipulating rates.
Continental Europe is focusing on cartel effects rather than digging into the internal culture of banks. Separate investigations, by the European Commission and the Swiss authorities, focus on the possible effects of inter-bank rate manipulation on end users. Last October European Commission officials raided the offices of banks and other companies involved in trading derivatives based on EURIBOR (the euro inter-bank offered rate). The Swiss competition commission launched an investigation in February, prompted by an “application for leniency” by UBS, into possible adverse effects on Swiss clients and companies of alleged manipulation of LIBOR and TIBOR (the Tokyo inter-bank offered rate) by the two Swiss and ten other international banks and “other financial intermediaries”.
Just to remind ourselves how important LIBOR is in finance…..
What may still seem to many to be a parochial affair involving Barclays, a 300-year-old British bank, rigging an obscure number, is beginning to assume global significance. The number that the traders were toying with determines the prices that people and corporations around the world pay for loans or receive for their savings. It is used as a benchmark to set payments on about $800 trillion-worth of financial instruments, ranging from complex interest-rate derivatives to simple mortgages. The number determines the global flow of billions of dollars each year. Yet it turns out to have been flawed.
So far, we have fines and resignations. Resignations mean that a banker who has made millions retires with his millions. Fines mean shareholders will take a hit. The financial sector will have come out way ahead from their fraud. What is needed here are criminal prosecutions. Jail time accompanied by fines directly affecting those who benefitted from the fraud. After that has been done, we should never again assume that bankers will act in the best interests of their clients, the public or even their own banks. They will act in their own best interests and in doing so, cost the rest of the world billions in losses.
See http://www.city-journal.org/2012/eon0706ng.html
Our economy appears to be based not on a structure of sand but on a structure of smoke, mirrors, and hot air.
– Consumers (us) spend more than we earn in order to live at a level of consumption above our means, and
– Our government enables and encourages that level of consumption through several mechanisms including pushing for low interest rates, and
– Our large banks engage in highly risky behavior with no fear of bankruptcy (after all, they are too large to be allowed to fail) and little fear of criminal prosecution (the very few such prosecutions have led to miniscule fines and very few jail sentences), and
– Our smaller, safer banks that follow reasonable practices have significant difficulty competing in a marketplace dominated by the behemoths, and
– Our politicians that we “hire” to legislate against thievery and to ensure regulatory oversight are dependent upon largess from those very organizations stealing from us in order to ensure their job security through successful campaign financing.
Maybe we are doomed?
If this were happening in Japan, in addition to fines and resignations, there might be suicide. Not sure that this helps, or just removes the responsible and thoughtful people from the gene pool (usually this happens after reproductive age, however.)