The rates in question — the London interbank offered rate, or Libor, and
the Euro interbank offered rate, or Euribor — are used to determine the
borrowing rates for consumers and companies, including some $10
trillion in mortgages, student loans and credit cards. The rates are
also linked to an estimated $700 trillion market in derivatives, which
banks buy and sell on a daily basis. If these rates are rigged, markets
are rigged — against bank customers, like everyday borrowers, and
against parties on the other side of a bank’s derivatives deals, like
pension funds. (...)
Rigged Rates, Rigged Markets - NY Times
The evidence, cited by the Justice Department
— which Barclays agreed is “true and accurate” — is damning. “Always
happy to help,” one employee wrote in an e-mail after being asked to
submit false information. “If you know how to keep a secret, I’ll bring
you in on it,” wrote a Barclays trader to a trader at another bank,
referring to an attempt to align their strategies for mutual gain.
If that’s not conspiracy and price-fixing, what is?
Rigged Rates, Rigged Markets - NY Times
