Financial regulator to get greater powers to phase out Libor June 23, 2020 Britain’s financial watchdog is to be given greater powers by the government to ensure that Libor is scrapped by 2021, after efforts to retire the scandal-hit interest rate benchmark faltered due to the coronavirus crisis. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) will be allowed to compel changes to benchmarks such as the London Interbank Offered Rate [...]
Milestones for ending Libor will be hit by coronavirus, says City watchdog March 25, 2020 The coronavirus pandemic will make it harder for some firms to meet some of the milestones for transitioning away from Libor, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said. Libor, or the London Interbank Offered Rate, is an interest rate benchmark used in contracts worth around £355 trillion globally. The rate was widely discredited after banks were [...]
Bank of England and City watchdog urge firms to accelerate Libor transition January 16, 2020 The City regulator and Bank of England have joined forces to urge banks and insurers to accelerate plans to transition away from the discredited Libor interest rate benchmark. Firms have until October to stop writing loans tied to the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor), which is embedded within some $350 trillion (£268 trillion) of financial [...]
Serious Fraud Office shut down Libor rigging investigation October 19, 2019 The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has shut down an investigation into the rigging of Libor. Libor is the benchmark interest rate that tracks the cost of borrowing cash. The decision comes despite evidence implicating the Bank of England, the BBC reports. Read more: Regulators say firms must not wait to move away from Libor The [...]
City regulators demand banks and insurers reveal plans to move away from Libor September 19, 2018 The City's top regulators today demanded banks and insurers tell them their plans for moving away from the Libor rate used in contracts worth trillions of pounds. Firms are currently contemplating how to transfer often complex contracts and systems referencing the rate onto new benchmarks before 2021, when the scandal-hit Libor may become defunct. The [...]
Libor rate-fixing scandal: Serious Fraud Office grills Deutsche Bank traders August 27, 2015 Deutsche Bank traders have been interviewed by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) in recent weeks in relation to the Libor scandal. A number of traders, both current and past, have been questioned by UK prosecutors about the manipulation of Libor – the rate at which banks lend to each other, according to Bloomberg. The SFO [...]
Banking pay-outs: Forex rate-rigging scandal will be bigger than Libor August 24, 2015 The foreign exchange market is the largest financial market in the world, with transactions worth $5.4 trillion taking place every day. The revelation that banks colluded to attempt to manipulate the forex market over many years makes it likely that forex claims will cost the banks more in compensation, as well as regulatory fines, than [...]
From TfL Tube strike and Tom Hayes’ Libor conviction to Quindell and Fantasy Football: Here’s what got us talking this week August 7, 2015 There were singing farmers. There was a decapitated bus. And suddenly, in North Korea, there was a new time zone. Here's what got us talking this week 1) London was (over) grounded The second strike in two months brought London's Tube network to a halt, and while that meant we all had to [...]
Head of the Serious Fraud Office David Green says agency’s future is uncertain despite conviction of Tom Hayes August 6, 2015 The director of the Serious Fraud Office, David Green, has said the future of the agency is uncertain, despite recent success. In an interview with the Guardian, Green said that despite the recent conviction of Tom Hayes over Libor rigging, the agency's future is shrouded in doubt due to setbacks in certain investigations. A jury [...]
Tom Hayes Libor conviction: Serious Fraud Squad targets more Libor scalps after UBS and Citigroup trader received 14 years August 5, 2015 Top City lawyers are describing the conviction of Tom Hayes as a “game changer” for the prosecution of white-collar crime, saying that the decision paves the way for more people being charged and rescues the reputation of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO). A jury convicted Hayes, a former UBS and Citigroup trader, on Monday on [...]