Reich: Wall Street and LIBOR

Britain is abuzz with the Libor scandal, but so far it’s been a yawn in the United States. That’s because Americans have assumed that the wrongdoing is confined to the other side of the pond. After all, “Libor” is short for “London interbank offered rate”, and the main culprit to date has been London-based Barclays. It’s further assumed that the scandal hasn’t really affected the pocketbooks of average Americans anyway.

Wrong, on both counts.

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WSJ: LIBOR Scandal Mushrooms

The Libor scandal is not only not going away, but a story that was first broken by the Journal four years ago has mushroomed in the past month. The investigation now spans three continents and includes at least 15 of the world’s biggest banks.

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Barclay’s May Face Criminal Charges

Labour leader Ed Miliband has called for a criminal investigation into the scandal and said anyone found to have broken the law should face prosecution.

Chancellor George Osborne is due to give a statement to the House of Commons on the Barclays scandal at midday.

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Barclay’s CEO apologizes for LIBOR Fraud

Banking giant Barclays is to pay penalties of £290 million to settle claims that it manipulated the interbank lending rate.

The bank was fined £59.5 million – the largest imposed by City watchdog the FSA – and also agreed payments to authorities in the US.

Chief executive Bob Diamond apologised for the incident and said that he and fellow executives Chris Lucas, Jerry del Missier and Rich Ricci have agreed not to take a bonus this year.

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