Tucker: I did not tell Barclays to rig rate July 9, 2012 PAUL Tucker, the deputy governor of the Bank of England, yesterday denied claims that members of the Labour government pressured him to encourage Barclays to lower its Libor interest rate submissions in 2008. “Absolutely not,” he said when asked to say whether government officials had asked him to “lean on Barclays” at the height of [...]
Heywood emails reveal a rising panic on key rates July 9, 2012 CABINET secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood was in frequent contact with the Bank of England over the Libor rate during the height of the financial crisis, according to emails revealed yesterday. Correspondence from 2008 between Sir Jeremy, then principal private secretary to chancellor Gordon Brown; Bank of England deputy governor Paul Tucker, then the central bank’s [...]
Osborne and Tucker have both been damaged by Libor row July 9, 2012 THERE will be two immediate consequences from Paul Tucker’s grilling by MPs yesterday. The first is that George Osborne has just been plunged into a political crisis of his own making; his strategy to implicate senior Labour party figures such as Ed Balls and Shriti Vadera has backfired spectacularly. Tucker, the Bank of England’s deputy [...]
Mitsubishi UFJ sacks traders as probe hots up July 9, 2012 TWO traders in London have been suspended by Japanese bank Mitsubishi UFJ as regulators extend their investigations into the alleged fixing of benchmark interest rates. Both traders previously worked at Rabobank, one of several banks being probed. They were confirmed as having been struck off last week, Bloomberg reported late last night. A spokesperson for [...]
Tucker suffers interview woes July 9, 2012 PARLIAMENT witnessed the job interview from hell yesterday. We’ll call the most hellish aspect Tucker’s Dilemma, named after the deputy governor of the Bank of England who was considered a shoe-in for the top job on Threadneedle Street before being dragged into the Libor scandal. The dilemma was simple: to stay in the running for [...]
Focus back on Barclays as Agius faces committee’s questioning July 9, 2012 MARCUS Agius, the chairman of Barclays, will today face questioning from MPs over his knowledge of the extent of the Libor scandal, following the appearance of former chief executive Bob Diamond and yesterday’s questioning of the deputy governor of the Bank of England, Paul Tucker. Agius, who stepped down as chairman last week but remains [...]
Barclays isn’t the only one engaged in the manipulation of interest rates July 9, 2012 IT HAS recently emerged that a UK bank has been manipulating a key interest rate. The only disappointment I have is that people are wasting so much energy on the wrong bank and the wrong interest rate. The Bank of England has far more influence over the banking system than Barclays – it is, after [...]
Emails reveal Tucker contact with Barclays July 9, 2012 Bank of England deputy governor Paul Tucker (pictured) contacted Barclays ex-chief executive Bob Diamond several times in October 2008, newly released emails show, and on one occasion directly remarked on the high level of the price of a bond. “Struck that your govt gnteed bond was issued at around 140 over gilts,” the subject line [...]
Barnier calls for Libor rigging to be criminalised July 9, 2012 Europe’s top regulatory official intends to propose new rules that would criminalise the manipulation of benchmarks such as Libor, a spokesman for the EU commissioner in charge of financial reform said on Monday. Michel Barnier wants to amend proposed market-abuse legislation that is designed to clamp down on insider trading and other wrongdoing to include [...]
FTSE pegged back by miners July 9, 2012 The FTSE 100 edged down in early trading today as disappointing jobs data out of the US on Friday continued to cast a shadow over global markets. The 80,000 increase in payrolls in June was slightly below market expectations for an increase of about 90,000 and was not enough to reduce the unemployment rate, which [...]