Libor rates under ‘fixing’ investigation in UK
06 Mar 2012
The London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor), has been the subject of investigations in the past 12 months into the possibility of deliberate suppression of the rate during the financial crisis, is set to face another scrutiny.
Officials from the British Bankers Association (BBA), the UK Treasury, Bank of England and Financial Services Authority, met yesterday to discuss the issue.
The BBA, which is the representative body of the banks whose inputs help set the rate, said in a statement, "as part of the normal reviewing processes of Libor, a number of contributing banks met today to consider future regulatory and market developments, such as the incoming liquidity rules, relevant to the parameters that Libor measure".
BBA chief executive, Angela Knight, said the BBA was keeping the tripartite fully informed and added that the review came as part of a "normal reviewing process" looking at upcoming regulatory changes.
Canadian regulators last month were the latest to join several authorities investigating claims that Libor and other interbank lending rates might have been manipulated.
Britain's biggest banks, including Barclays, HSBC and Royal Bank of Scotland, have said they too were under investigation in the global probe.
