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Switzerland investigating bank rate-fixing abuses



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Sigh. Why is it that in the US, the authorities keep handing out immunity and sweetheart deals that neither accept or deny guilt? As it relates to this Swiss investigation, UBS did receive conditional immunity last summer from the US Justice Department. It remains unfair that despite the complete disaster left behind by the big banks, they continue to find life easy compared to everyone else. The SEC and Justice Department are seemingly much too concerned about campaign contributions from the big spenders or job futures to care about tackling the problem. There will always be talk of action in the US about the banking abuses but it's doubtful that will ever translate into actual action. Bloomberg:

UBS AG (UBSN) and Credit Suisse Group AG (CSGN) are among 12 banks facing a Swiss inquest into possible manipulation of the London interbank offered rate, the latest probe into how the benchmark for $350 trillion of financial products is set. “Collusion between derivative traders might have influenced” Libor and its Japanese equivalent, Tibor, the Swiss competition watchdog, Comco, said in an e-mailed statement today. “Market conditions regarding derivative products based on these reference rates might have been manipulated too.” Comco said it opened the investigation after receiving an application for its “leniency program,” which indicated that traders from various banks might have influenced the rate. Libor is set daily by the British Bankers’ Association based on data from banks, which report how much it would cost them to borrow from each other for various periods of time. Regulators in the U.S., U.K. and European Union have been examining how Libor is set, while Japan’s securities watchdog has probed Tibor.
And remember, Wall Street is making a renewed effort to push back against the foggy area of derivatives. Many blame this unregulated business for significantly contributing to the 2008 crash.


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