Libor banking scandal continues

This video is called Record fine for UBS.

By Andre Damon in the USA:

UBS Libor-rigging settlement exposes pervasive bank fraud

20 December 2012

UBS, the largest bank in Switzerland, announced Wednesday it had agreed to a $1.5 billion settlement with regulators in three countries, admitting that between 2005 and 2010 it intentionally manipulated the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor), the most important global interest rate.

A report issued by the British Financial Services Authority (FSA) on the settlement provides voluminous documentation, in the form of emails and instant message exchanges, of the falsification on virtually a daily basis of UBS’ submissions to the British Bankers’ Association (BBA), which oversees Libor.

The settlement comes six months after a $450 million deal between regulators and Barclays, the fourth-largest global bank, to settle charges that it similarly manipulated Libor.

UBS and Barclays are among some 20 major financial institutions under investigation for colluding to manipulate the benchmark rate, including HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland, Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, Sumitomo Mitsui, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and Bank of America.

The Libor scandal has laid bare the rampant criminality in the operations of the world’s major banks and exposed the fact that the so-called “free market” is rigged by the most powerful banks and corporations for their own profit.

The Libor rate, which is set daily in London under the auspices of the BBA, a private banking lobby, is supposed to reflect the average cost of loans between major banks. An estimated $800 trillion in financial products are linked to Libor. These include $10 trillion in mortgages, student loans and credit cards. About 90 percent of US commercial and mortgage loans are linked to the index.

Between 2005 and 2007, Barclays, UBS and other banks systematically inflated their borrowing cost estimates to the Libor board in order to drive up the Libor rate and increase their profits on derivatives linked to it. After 2007, when the global financial crisis intensified, the banks lowballed their submissions to Libor in order to mask their financial weaknesses and lower their borrowing costs.

By manipulating the rate upward, the banks robbed countless millions of people of billions of dollars in inflated loan costs. By manipulating the rate downward, they deprived states, cities, pension funds and retirees with fixed investments of untold billions in revenues from bond holdings.

The settlements with both Barclays and UBS—expected to be followed by similar deals with other banks under investigation—enable the banks to pay a small fraction of their revenues and avoid any criminal charges. Not a single leading executive at either bank has been named or indicted for his or her role in defrauding the world.

In the case of UBS, the US Justice Department made a point of not criminally charging UBS itself, instead obtaining a guilty plea only from its Japanese subsidiary. Only two mid-level UBS employees have been criminally charged.

USA: Libor manipulation cost Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac more than $3 billion, according to an estimate by a government watchdog, who recommends the government-owned mortgage giants sue the big banks: here.

A US judge has dismissed most of the claims against a group of banks including Bank of America, Royal Bank of Scotland, JP Morgan Chase and Barclays in civil lawsuits over the rigged Libor interest rate: here.

Ex-Goldman Sachs trader faces fraud charge after surrender to FBI: here.

Related articles

• UBS faces $1 billion day of reckoning over interest rate rigging (hangthebankers.com)
• Libor: a new penalty, against a backdrop of business as usual (pubcit.typepad.com)
• Banking Crimes- LIBOR, Fraudclosure and Money Laundering- A Global Criminal Enterprise. (mattweidnerlaw.com)
• UBS Near Settlement on Libor Scandal (dailyfinance.com)
• UBS Libor-fixing fine may reach $1.5 billion (rawstory.com)
• Central banks seeking a role in Libor after the scandal (independent.co.uk)
• RBS fined £390m over Libor scandal (bbc.co.uk)
• Banks let off the hook for Libor antitrust allegations (tv.msnbc.com)
• Libor Immunity From Cyprus Shows Rate Still Broken: U.K. Credit – Bloomberg (bloomberg.com)
• LIBOR Scandal: Affects Homeowners and Consumers (defendyourhomefightforeclosure.wordpress.com)

Citibank refuses to condemn Ugandan gay-killing bill

This video from Uganda says about itself:

Pastor Joseph Tolton Preaches At Ugandan Gay Rights Activist David Kato‘s Memorial Service

Uganda’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and trans-gender community today marked a year since the death of David Kato who was killed at his home last year. His killer has since been caught and jailed. Main celebrant Bishop Christopher Ssenyonjo and a US based pastor Joseph Tolton encouraged the Ugandan community to adopt greater tolerance and understand of this particular community rather than shunning them. (1/26/12)

From ThinkProgress in the USA:

Citibank Refuses Petition To Condemn Uganda’s ‘Kill The Gays’ Bill

By Zack Ford on Nov 30, 2012 at 4:20 pm

Citibank is one of the largest businesses and employers in Uganda, but the company refuses to take a position against the proposed “Kill The Gays” bill. Over 500,000 have petitioned the company, as well as Barclays, to come out against the odious proposal if only to protect its employees and customers in the country. Citibank responded to the petition today, but only reiterated its nondiscrimination policy:

While the laws and cultural norms in some countries where Citi operates differ from commonly accepted global standards for human rights, Citi supports equality without regard for, among other personal characteristics, race, gender, gender identity or expression, disability, age, nationality, or sexual orientation.

“Supporting equality” is a particularly weak statement in response to a bill that would blatantly persecute gay people and their allies with life sentences in prison or the death penalty. Barclays at least took the added step of acknowledging the bill and its opposition:

Barclays has a strong history of supporting all aspects of diversity, both in the workplace and in wider society. Equally, we are proud of playing our part in the development of economies across Africa, and the key role Barclays plays in the lives of millions of our African customers. Barclays is aware of the proposed legislation relating to homosexuality in Uganda and we are engaging at appropriate levels of the Ugandan Government to express our views.

Sign the Change.org petition to encourage these banking giants to use their significant corporate influence to protect the lives of LGBT citizens.

Related articles

• Speaker of the Ugandan parliament promises to pass …”kill the gays” bill (point4counterpoint.wordpress.com)
• Stop Ugandan gay death penalty law (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Uganda could pass anti-gay law imminently: sign the petition to stop it (newhumanist.org.uk)
• Customers urge banks to condemn Uganda anti-gay bill – Windy City Times (windycitymediagroup.com)
• Stop Gay death penalty : Emma Ruby-Sachs – Avaaz.org (point4counterpoint.wordpress.com)

Barclays banksters back bigotry

This video is called LIBOR Fraud of The Century (Barclays).

From daily The Morning Star in Britain:

No right to whip up bigotry

Friday 02 November 2012

Barclays and Coutts banks should think twice about blackmailing gay rights charity Stonewall into dropping its Bigot of the Year annual award.

Stonewall was set up to defend lesbian and gay people against being bullied into submission and anonymity by narrow-minded bigots.

Bankers’ public image is not so good that these wealthy companies can ill afford being seen as the bullies they show themselves to be.

Barclays is currently in the frame for trying to manipulate energy prices in the US. It has already been fined £290 million for rigging the Libor benchmark interest rate.

And the bank has also set aside £2bn to meet the cost of what is politely termed “mis-selling” payment protection insurance – fraud, as it should be called.

So any bid by Barclays to assume the moral high ground by warning Stonewall that persistence with the “bigot” award will cause the bank not to support the annual awards ceremony should be treated with the contempt it merits.

Businesses give financial support to campaigning charities such as Stonewall to polish their corporate image. Some need more buffing up than others.

It does not give them the right to tell them what level of outrage against discrimination is acceptable.

Barclays executives may be unaware of the degree of hurt suffered by many lesbians and gay men by dint of the campaign headed by Cardinal Keith O’Brien to prevent civil marriage in Scotland.

The fierceness of the cardinal’s rhetoric on this issue is in stark contrast to the mealy-mouthed platitudes uttered in response to the widespread abuse of children carried out by Catholic clergy and, worse still, the systematic cover-up at all levels of his church.

Cardinal O’Brien has sought to mobilise Catholics in Scotland to press the Scottish government to deny homosexuals the right to marry in a registry office.

Draft legislation imposes no compulsion on any religion. Religious denominations will continue to be able to set their own rules on who marries in their places of worship.

Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson, who received a Stonewall award as the first openly gay leader of a major political party, distanced herself from the “bigot” description, insisting that she “will also respect those who hold a different view.”

Respect must go two ways and Cardinal O’Brien’s disagreement with the principle of universal equality before the law has been less than respectful.

Calling this a “grotesque subversion of a universally accepted human right” goes beyond the normal bounds of decency, as does his equation of gay marriage with slavery.

Advocacy of discrimination is not a victimless crime.

Lesbians and gays are aware that hostility to their legitimate wishes can be fuelled by the cardinal’s words to an extent that puts their personal safety at risk.

They have every right to defend themselves through mockery, which is what the Bigot of the Year award is about.

A church spokesman’s categorisation of this award as revealing the depth of Stonewall “intolerance and willingness to attack and demean those who don’t share their views” speaks volumes, as does his suggestion that government funding of the charity should be reconsidered.

Public organisations and individuals must understand that, if they can dish it out, they should be able to take it.

No-one has the right to whip up bigotry against a minority if they can’t take being described as a bigot.

This video is called Losing Faith: Abuse, Cover-Up and the Catholic Church.

Cardinal Keith O’Brien to give up frontline role in Catholic Church of Scotland: here.

Barclays top dogs grab £40m bonus: here.

Related articles

• Scottish Cardinal Keith O’Brien Named “Bigot Of The Year” At Stonewall Awards (queerty.com)
• ‘Bigot’ award for UK’s most senior Cardinal – Europe, World News – Independent.ie (misebogland.wordpress.com)
• Cardinal Keith O’Brien: My sexual conduct has fallen below the standards expected of me as a priest (dailyrecord.co.uk)
• Cardinal Keith O’Brien Confesses: Yes, I Was Totally Nailing All Those Priests (joemygod.blogspot.com)
• Keith O’Brien faces new allegation that he assaulted a priest on the night he was made a cardinal (dailyrecord.co.uk)
• Sex conduct admission by cardinal Keith O’Brien (telegraph.co.uk)
• Cardinal Keith O’Brien, Implicated In Gay Scandal, Admits Sex With Priests (towleroad.com)
• Cardinal Keith O’Brien ‘accused of inappropriate acts’ – BBC News (bbc.co.uk)
• Cardinal Keith O’Brien steps down (bbc.co.uk)

British riches and poverty news

England: NHS workers were up in arms today after a Gloucester NHS trust chief seeking to slash staff pay gloated about buying himself a new boat: here.

Banking giant Barclays today reported a 13 per cent rise in pre-tax profits to £4.2 billion in the first half of 2012 – despite a string of public outrages: here.

City regulator the Financial Services Authority (FSA) announced new rules today to clamp down on banks and building societies mis-selling customers packaged accounts: here.

More than one in five workers are being forced by employers to pay for personal protection equipment (PPE) out of their own pocket in flagrant breach of the law, the TUC said today: here.

Britain’s poorest pensioners are losing more than a third of their income to taxes, new research warned today: here.

Britain’s depressing economic recession and rocketing unemployment figures may have driven more people to commit suicide over the last couple of years, experts suggested today: here.

A mansion in London’s posh Knightsbridge has gone on sale for £300 million—making it the most expensive house sale in British history: here.

Scotland’s Labour shadow health secretary called on the government today to break the “link between poverty and early death” after figures revealed poorer Scots live more than 13 years less than wealthier people: here.

The government’s savage welfare cuts will shove the majority of British children below the breadline within two years, the TUC warned yesterday: here.

Related articles

• Comfortable Myths About Poverty: British Churches Fight Back. (my.firedoglake.com)
• The Tories’ trouble with women (morningstaronline.co.uk)
• The lies we tell ourselves: ending comfortable myths about poverty (taxresearch.org.uk)
• 20% of British children ‘living in poverty’ (independent.co.uk)

Barclays fraud bank’s boss gets millions

By Tony Patey in Britain:

Barclays bungs Diamond £2m on his way out

Tuesday 10 July 2012

by Tony Patey

Barclays boss Bob Diamond walked out of his job at £40,000 a footstep, it was revealed today, a week after he quit amid a rate-rigging scandal.

Mr Diamond – who has already raked in millions as a high-flying banker – is expected to receive £2 million after deciding to forego a potential £20m in bonuses and share awards.

So when he walked out – with immediate effect – of Barclays’ headquarters in Canary Wharf he took the lift from his 31st-floor office and made £40,000 a stride as he went 50 metres to the door.

He has agreed to take up to 12 months’ salary, his pension allowance and other benefits, the bank said in a statement, which works out to around £2m.

Unreality also extended to the world of No 10.

Asked about Mr Diamond’s pay-off, Prime Minister David Cameron’s official spokesman said: “This is a decision for Bob Diamond and for the board of Barclays.

“I think the decision to forgo the bonus is a sign that they understand public concerns and that they understand that there is a need for a change in the culture of banks.”

Barclays chairman Marcus Agius told the Treasury select committee that Mr Diamond had voluntarily decided to forego any deferred consideration and any deferred bonuses worth up to £20m.

Both resigned last week over revelations that Barclays traders attempted to manipulate the key inter-bank lending rate Libor, but Mr Agius is staying on to lead the search for Mr Diamond’s replacement.

The bank was fined £290m for attempting to fix Libor.

…

It is thought Barclays remains in talks with Mr Diamond’s right-hand man, chief operating officer Jerry del Missier, over his pay-off. He quit the same day as Mr Diamond.

As big banks face the fallout from a global investigation into interest rate manipulation, American and British lawmakers are scrutinizing regulators who failed to take action that might have prevented years of illegal activity: here.

The latest annual study by Democratic Audit depicts important aspects of the decay of democratic rule in Britain under the impact of a growing divide between rich and poor: here.

Scandal banker Diamond and US Republican Romney

This video is called Barclays scandal: CEO Bob Diamond quits.

From the Huffington Post in the USA:

Robert Diamond, Disgraced Barclays Banker, Pulls Out Of Romney Fundraiser

Posted: 07/03/2012 11:00 am Updated: 07/03/2012 1:04 pm

WASHINGTON — A disgraced London banker has rescinded an offer to co-host a high-dollar fundraiser for Mitt Romney, sparing the GOP hopeful the difficulty of appearing at a lavish event with a man embroiled in scandal.

Romney‘s plan to hold a fundraiser in London this summer with Barclays CEO Robert Diamond

also known as Bob Diamond

was reported June 28 by the London Telegraph. The cost of the dinner seemed to shock the British paper, which noted that “the price of invitations dwarfs the amounts paid for such fund-raisers in British politics.”

On Tuesday, Diamond resigned from Barclays after his bank was fined more than $450 million by British and U.S. authorities for attempting to manipulate the Libor rate (London interbank offered rate), a key global metric used to set everything from credit card to mortgage interest rates.

Barclays ‘uncertain future’ warns Moody’s: here.

Libor scandal exposes banks’ rigging of global rates: here.

IN the same week that the capitalist banking system was exposed as a centre of criminal venality, lying and cheating in order to secure vast profits at the expense of ordinary working people, it has been reported that an estimated one million children in Britain are living with ‘food insecurity’, not knowing where their next meal will be coming from: here.

Exclusive: Germany pushes Libor probe of Deutsche Bank – sources: here.

Romney taking heat from Republicans: here.

Mitt Romney invested in medical-waste firm that disposed of aborted fetuses, government documents show: here.

Where the Money Lives: Vanity Fair Report Reveals Loopholes, Offshore Havens Behind Romney’s Fortune. Amy Goodman, Democracy NOW!: “Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney is on the hot seat over where he stashes his vast personal fortune, estimated at up to $250 million. We speak with reporter Nick Shaxson, whose new Vanity Fair article, ‘Where the Money Lives,’ delves into the murky world of offshore finance and reveals loopholes that allowed Romney to skirt tax laws and store millions in foreign tax havens. The article has sparked the latest round of questions about Romney’s taxes and offshore accounts, amplified by Romney’s refusal so far to release more than one year’s worth of tax returns.” Watch the Video and Read the Transcript here.

Romney Caught Lying by SEC Forms: He was CEO, President, Chairman and Owner of Bain When He Claims He Wasn’t. Mark Karlin, BuzzFlash at Truthout: “This blows a huge credibility hole in the Romney narrative of being a job creator, in addition to his own company’s documents contradicting him, and leaves little room to conclude anything other than that he lied. It will be legally impossible for him to effectively deny what is stated in SEC documents and Massachusetts State filings, because that could raise the specter of being accused of fraudulent financial reports. FactCheck.org previously implied that such a scenario, filing false government reporting documents, would be a felony”: here.

Michael Tomasky on Mitt Romney the Race Baiter at the NAACP: here.

EXCLUSIVE: Romney Invested Millions in Chinese Firm That Profited on US Outsourcing: here.

Mitt’s story doesn’t add up. What Romney said a decade ago makes a lot more sense than what he’s saying now: here.

USA: Every Intelligent Voter’s Guide to Electioneering Bunk: here.

Fraudulent Barclays bank destroying British health service?

From daily News Line in England:

Thursday, 5 July 2012

BARCLAYS VICE CHAIR ON NHS COMMISSIONING BOARD

YESTERDAY the Secretary of State for Health

in the British Conservative (Tory) government

told the House of Commons that the government will be taking a step back from the day-to-day running of the NHS and will be leaving it in the capable hands of the just established NHS Commissioning Board.

What the real job of the Board is, was made crystal clear by shadow Health Secretary Burnham who told the House of Commons that on the Board will sit the Vice Chair of Barclays Bank, which has just had to pay a £290 million fine for rigging the Libor rate.

Burnham also revealed that the gentleman in question had also made a £106,000 donation to the Tory Party.

Such a gentleman is therefore ideally equipped to cut, close and privatise the NHS, with the government able to claim that the horrific results of its day-to-day running of the NHS by this board of privateers is nothing to do with it.

On the same day that Lansley was speaking to the House of Commons the Nuffield Centre published its commissioned report by the Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS) which states that ‘the coming years will be the toughest since the early 1950s’ when dental and prescription fees were introduced.

The IFS suggested that the NHS would get settlements from 2015 until 2022 of somewhere between 0% and 2.4% a year and that this would not be enough to keep pace with the demands being placed on the service.

It added that efficiency savings were essential and suggested that ministers need to consider more radical steps including charging for services in the way it is done for dentistry and prescriptions, and stopping doing some care considered less of a priority and too expensive to carry out.

Anybody that has paid a visit to the dentist recently will vouch that it is a very expensive business indeed.

Extending the prices currently being paid for dentistry to the NHS would put most treatments out of the reach of the majority of the population, and make the NHS very profitable indeed for big business.

The man from Barclays and his co-helpers will no doubt be jumping for joy at the idea of making the NHS a huge source of profit for their chums.

The review did not go into detail about how these measures could be implemented.

Another enthusiast, Nick Seddon, of the think tank Reform, has said that imposing charges for services, such as seeing a GP, could be extremely effective. And of course very profitable.

The recent BMA conference called for Health Secretary Lansley to resign. It was made clear to delegates that 20-50 NHS Trusts were to be closed.

Conference unanimously voted for Emergency Motions calling to halt the closure of South London and Essex hospitals and for a campaign to ensure that all hospitals struggling for survival due to PFI debts remain owned and run by the NHS.

Health Secretary Lansley told the South London Healthcare NHS Trust that an administrator could be brought in within weeks, which could see the trust dissolved and some services closed.

The Trust amalgamated the Princess Royal University Hospital in Orpington, Queen Mary’s Hospital in Sidcup, and the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich in 2009.

The three hospitals inherited a large Private Finance Initiative (PFI) debt and the trust finished last year £69m in deficit on a turnover of £424m. This means they are to be closed.

There is no doubt that the privateers on the NHS Commissioning Board – enthusiasts of the PFI schemes – are being put in place to push through cuts closures and NHS charges for the benefit of the banks and the bosses.

The trade unions must rise up.

Someone has expressed their creative disgust with Barclays on London for hire cycles: here.

Matt Taibbi | Why Is Nobody Freaking Out About the LIBOR Banking Scandal? Here.

USA: Governors of more than a dozen of the 50 US states have indicated they may not participate in the expansion of Medicaid under the Obama-backed health care legislation: here.

Barclays, other banks, in Libor scandal

This video is called Barclays CEO quits (news with Bernard Hickey).

By Christopher Marsden and Julie Hyland in England:

As Barclays CEO resigns

Libor manipulation scandal engulfs 16 top banks

4 July 2012

The Libor scandal, thus far focused on British-based Barclays bank, has revealed that global capitalism functions not as a free market, but as a rigged market controlled by contending groups of corporations, cartels and multi-billionaire speculators.

The sums involved in the manipulation of Libor (the London inter-bank lending rate) and its European equivalent, Euribor, are staggering. The most conservative estimate of the money accrued to the world’s top banks by these practices is £48 billion ($75 billion).

Libor and Euribor are two of the crucial mechanisms for setting interest rates on a vast array of financial products. Libor is the largest and most variable rate, covering ten currencies. It even helps determine the rate of the US dollar in the form of eurodollars.

Traders in London, New York, Japan and elsewhere colluded to manipulate the Libor rate so as to make massive profits or conceal losses, at the direct expense of pension funds and mortgage and loan holders.

These practices—involving what the British Financial Services Authority (FSA) admits were a “significant number of employees”—played a major role in determining the extent of the global financial crash of 2008.

A former Barclays executive who was close to the bank’s Libor-setting operation told the Financial Mail that the Libor mis-quotes “gave an illusion of stability and was a key factor in masking the severity of the crisis.”

A legal case in the United States is seeking damages of £70 billion ($110 billion) from Barclays and almost £80 billion ($126 billion) from the UK government-owned Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS)—figures far in excess of the banks’ market valuations.

This alone would make it the financial crime of the century. Yet after investigations going back to 2007 in at least three countries, no one has been prosecuted. Instead, those responsible have earned millions upon millions.

It was not until this week that the two leading figures in Barclays, Chairman Marcus Agius and Chief Executive Bob Diamond, reluctantly resigned. Both can expect handsome severance packages.

Meanwhile, the British Conservative/Liberal Democrat government has done nothing other than promise yet another toothless parliamentary inquiry—the standard mechanism for burying every crime of the ruling elite from the Iraq war to the News of the World phone hacking scandal.

Libor cartoon: here.

The British Bankers’ Association confirmed today that it has launched an investigation into the ongoing interbank interest rate-fixing scandal: here.

Nine giant banks submitted “living wills” to US authorities on Tuesday outlining how the government could break them up and sell their assets if they face bankruptcy: here.

Barclays bank boss resigns in scandal

This video is called How Barclays manipulated the libor rates.

From daily The Guardian in England:

Barclays chief executive Bob Diamond resigns

Jill Treanor, City editor

Tuesday 3 July 2012 08.45 BST

Barclays chief executive Bob Diamond has resigned following the interest rate manipulation scandal

Bob Diamond has resigned from Barclays in the face of relentless political pressure for him to go following the interest rate manipulation scandal.

An attempt by the board to save his position by accepting the resignation of the chairman, Marcus Agius, on Monday has failed. Instead Agius will now become full-time chairman and lead the search for a new chief executive.

In a stunning turnaround – only on Monday the 60-year old chief executive was vowing to stay – Diamond is to go immediately after a 15-year career with the bank and only 18 months as chief executive.

Latest developments as Barclays chief executive steps down: here.

The move comes after Barclays was fined £290 million by UK and US regulators for manipulating the Libor, the rate at which banks lend to each other: here.

See also here.

The latest “crunch” EU summit at the end of June landed Italy’s citizens with a huge bill to bail out the banks yet again: here.