‘Bankers’ self-regulation not working against fraud’

This video says about itself:

11 December 2012

There have been more developments in the interest rate manipulation scandal.

The Wall Street Journal reports the European Union is set to accuse several banks of attempting to rig the setting of the Euribor lending rate.

Barclays has already admitted that. Others under investigation reportedly include France’s Crédit Agricole and Société Générale, Britain’s HSBC and Germany’s Deutsche Bank.

Euribor, the euro interbank offered rate, and Libor, the London interbank offered rate, are the key gauges of how much banks pay to borrow from peers, and underpin swathes of financial products from Spanish mortgages to derivatives contracts sealed in London.

Both are set using interbank borrowing rates submitted by banks.

At the same time Britain’s Serious Fraud Office has arrested three British men over alleged manipulation of the London interbank lending rates.

The SFO said on Tuesday three British men, aged 33, 41 and 47, had been taken to a London police station for interviews. They had all been living in Britain.

Sources had said that regulators and prosecutors in the US and Europe were closing in on individual traders they suspected of colluding to rig key benchmark lending rates such as Libor and its euro cousin Euribor.

Dutch daily De Volkskrant reports today that self-regulation by bankers did not work in the Euribor fraud scandal. Bankers manipulating interest rates got only slaps on the wrist; fines of 750 euros or a little more for these top-level fat cats.

Talking about self-regulation by corporations. Recently, it turned out that in Dutch North Holland province, self-regulation harms workers. ‘Polish immigrant workers are often victims of threats and sexual intimidation‘.

Two days ago, it turned out that in The Hague city self-regulation by construction corporations led to unsafe situations for workers.

This self-regulation is part of Thatcherite-Blairite ideology.

What next? Privatising police by having self-regulation for the mafia?