Banks charged for rigging exchange rates

[GostHacked]

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-30016007

There has been much of this type of activity in the last couple years. A few fines here a few more there, and yet we still find that the banks who play on the international level are still manipulating the markets.

HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland, Swiss bank UBS and US banks JP Morgan Chase and Citibank have all been fined.

A separate probe into Barclays is continuing.

The UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the US regulator, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) issued the fines.

Separately, the Swiss regulator, FINMA, has penalised UBS 134m Swiss francs.

Barclays, which had been expected to announce a similar deal to the other banks, said it would not be settling at this time.

"After discussions with other regulators and authorities, we have concluded that it is in the interests of the company to seek a more general coordinated settlement," it said in a statement.

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Martin Wheatley, FCA: Forex failings "let down public trust"

FCA boss Martin Wheatley told the BBC: "This isn't the end of the story".

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I've seen this at least 5 times in the last year where banks have been fined, and with quite heafty fines, but not enough to deter them from those practices that got them lots of money, and into lots of trouble as well.

LIBOR http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libor_scandal

The Libor scandal was a series of fraudulent actions connected to the Libor (London Interbank Offered Rate) and also the resulting investigation and reaction. The Libor is an average interest rate calculated through submissions of interest rates by major banks in London. The scandal arose when it was discovered that banks were falsely inflating or deflating their rates so as to profit from trades, or to give the impression that they were more creditworthy than they were.[3] Libor underpins approximately $350 trillion in derivatives. It is administered by NYSE Euronext, which took over running the Libor in January 2014.[4]

The banks are supposed to submit the actual interest rates they are paying, or would expect to pay, for borrowing from other banks. The Libor is supposed to be the total assessment of the health of the financial system because if the banks being polled feel confident about the state of things, they report a low number and if the member banks feel a low degree of confidence in the financial system, they report a higher interest rate number. In June 2012, multiple criminal settlements by Barclays Bank revealed significant fraud and collusion by member banks connected to the rate submissions, leading to the scandal.[5][6][7]

Because Libor is used in US derivatives markets, an attempt to manipulate Libor is an attempt to manipulate US derivatives markets, and thus a violation of American law. Since mortgages, student loans, financial derivatives, and other financial products often rely on Libor as a reference rate, the manipulation of submissions used to calculate those rates can have significant negative effects on consumers and financial markets worldwide.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/28/us-lloyds-libor-idUSKBN0FX13H20140728

(Reuters) - Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY.L) could face further punishment after agreeing to pay fines totaling $370 million for its part in a global interest rate rigging scandal and for attempting to manipulate fees for a government lending scheme to help banks.

The settlement is the seventh joint penalty handed out by American and British regulators in connection with the attempted manipulation of the London interbank offered rate, or Libor, and other similar benchmarks used to price around $450 trillion of financial products worldwide.

But it is the first penalty for attempting to fix so-called "repo" rates to reduce fees for a taxpayer-backed scheme set up by the Bank of England to support British banks during the 2008 financial crisis.

This special liquidity scheme (SLS), launched in 2008, was an attempt to free up banks' balance sheets and boost confidence in the financial system. It enabled banks to exchange hard-to-trade mortgage assets for government bills.

So when do we see perp walks for these banksters? And how does anyone make a sound investement when the markets are rigged and heavily manipulated?

[GostHacked]

This is from two years ago showing how things are hanging in the balance and can fall anytime resulting in a wide reaching global impact.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GR_9ND18GJQ

[Michael Hardner]

It seems that sometimes conspiracies are real. And with real conspiracies, the reaction is often a shrug and a yawn.

[GostHacked]

It seems that sometimes conspiracies are real. And with real conspiracies, the reaction is often a shrug and a yawn.

This one has slipped by many, but has wide reaching impacts and can be a factor in other geo-political actions that other major players are taking (BRICS). The sooner they can sever themselves from these markets the better off they will be. And that is provided that they have sound economic policies, which I seriously doubt.

More on LIBOR and how markets are being rigged.

[dre]

They need to start throwing executives in prison for a few decades when these kinds of crimes are commited.

When the only consequence is a fine, the government is basically just saying "You can keep doing this kind of thing, we just want our cut".

[jacee]

As a public shareholder in government, I guess I want a much bigger cut, bigger fines, better deterence.

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[eyeball]

The government is the real problem here not the banks.

Fine the bureaucrats and politicians then you'll see some changes.

[jacee]

The government is the real problem here not the banks.

Fine the bureaucrats and politicians then you'll see some changes.

How so?

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[GostHacked]

How so?

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They work for us. Gotta make an example out of a few of them to send the message to the rest of the politicians and bankers/traders.

[jacee]

They work for us. Gotta make an example out of a few of them to send the message to the rest of the politicians and bankers/traders.

I'm with you there.

Just not sure what we can nail them for.

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[GostHacked]

I'm with you there.

Just not sure what we can nail them for.

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Plenty of things, fraud for one, grand theft being another. Market/price fixing, currency manipulation, rate fixing, And even conspiring with others for said activities. Rigging the game.