LIBOR rate fixing fraud to extend to more banks — RT

Blogman's Notes: Barclay's Bank has been fined a record $500 million dollars by regulators for what has been dubbed the LIBOR scandal. First of all this is anything but a scandal; it outright fraud! If a bank teller steals $1000 from the bank, criminal charges are immediately laid, but in the case of bank executives, they get away Scot free with their multi-million dollar bonuses and retirement packages. Although a large fine has been imposed, why have criminal charges not been laid? And what happens to the fines that are collected by the regulators? And what about the victims, who are the victims? The victims are all peoples that use banking services, pretty much all over the developed world, and even throughout the world. We all pay the bill for the frauds perpetrated at the highest level of commercial and investment banking. This fraud that probably netted the perpetrators hundreds of billions is addressed by the authorities only when it can no longer be hidden and then all the perpetrators get is a slap on the wrist. This is how the real world operates; the real crooks are protected and rewarded while the little people all over the world are defrauded. This LIBOR fraud and all the other frauds of Wall Sreet, the City of London and other major financial centers of the world take pennies out of the pockets of rickshaw drivers in India, and of the destitute farmers in Africa, and of the slum dwellers in Rio de Janeiro; the poorest of the poor are the real victims whose pennies add up to billions in blood soaked profits for a few elite members of the Global banking fraternity!

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Max Keiser on LIBOR fraud - video

More fines to follow in rate fixing case — RT

The UK financial watchdog has warned there is more to come in rate fixing scandal. This follows the resignation of the Barclay’s Chairman, the first bank to be caught out.


"I wish I could say this [Barclay’s] was an isolated case… You will hear more on this in due course," the Financial Services Authority acting director of enforcement, Tracey McDermott said.

Last week American and British regulators imposed a $450 million fine on Barclay’s for providing false figures on borrowing rates between 2005 and 2009, which affected corporate loans, inflation swaps, mortgages and currencies.

The UK Chancellor George Osborne said on Friday the FSA’s continuing investigation “concerns a number of institutions both based in the UK and overseas”. “But it is already clear that the FSA’s investigation demonstrates systemic failures at the heart of the financial system at the time,” Osborne added.

Now more than a dozen major banks, including Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, HSBC, UBS and Royal Bank of Scotland, are under the microscope of authorities in the US, Europe and Japan.

The involvement of Barclay’s in the rate fixing scandal has already seen its shares plummet 15%, and resulted in calls for the management team to quit. On Monday Barclay’s Chairman Marcus Agius stepped down, saying the scandal dealt "a devastating blow" to the bank's reputation. The “buck stops with me, and I must acknowledge responsibility by standing aside,” Agius said in a statement.

Meanwhile Barclay’s CEO Bob Diamond has been under pressure to quit. He said he’s giving up his annual bonus, but showed no intention of resigning.

Read More: More fines to follow in rate fixing case — RT