The Barclays' LIBOR story claimed some scalps, as CEO Bob Diamond and Chief Operating Officer Jerry del Missier. Diamond is slated to be grilled by a UK paliamentary committee on the issue tomorrow.
What seems to be happening is that a lot of banks seemed to have been fudging on their stated LIBOR rates and Barclays was coming in on the high side; a Diamond memo seemed to encourage Barclays to do likewise.
If there is legs to this story, we could see a massive rebate to customers who overpaid on their loans if there was illicit interest-rate fixing done by banks; that added to the problems with European debt, and it would seem to be a bad day to be an international banker. Joe Bank Manager in Smallville might not be caught in the fray, but the big boys might well be.
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