Ex-SIGTARP Neil Barofsky On Libor Fraud: "Regulators Are Owned By The Banks"

July 13 (Bloomberg) -- Neil Barofsky, former special inspector for TARP discusses the collusive failure of regulators in the LIBOR scandal.  Runs 5 minutes.

Comments

[john]

Central bankers eyeing whether Libor needs scrapping

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/19/us-banking-libor-idUSBRE86H1IV20120719

[snip]

Central bankers and regulators will hold talks in September on whether the troubled global Libor interest rate can be reformed or whether it is so damaged that the benchmark of borrowing costs should be scrapped.

Bank of England Governor Mervyn King told fellow central bankers in a letter that it was "very clear that radical reforms of the Libor system are needed".

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and global financial regulator Mark Carney, who is also governor of the Bank of Canada, on Wednesday floated possible alternatives to the London interbank offered rate, which some bankers manipulated in the 2007-09 financial crisis.

[john]

Exclusive: Banks in Libor probe consider group settlement - sources


http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/20/us-banking-libor-settlment-idUSBRE86J00H20120720

[snip]

(Reuters) - A group of banks being investigated in an interest rate rigging scandal are looking to pursue a group settlement with regulators rather than face a Barclays-style backlash by going it alone, people familiar with the banks' thinking said.

Such discussions are preliminary, and it is unclear if regulators will enter these talks, aimed at resolving allegations that banks attempted to manipulate the London interbank offered rate, or Libor, a benchmark that underpins hundreds of trillions of dollars in contracts.