CBS News (AP) ALBANY, N.Y. – The attorneys general of New York and Connecticut have issued subpoenas to seven banks over the possible manipulation of a global interest rate, a person with knowledge of the matter told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
Subpoenas were issued, mostly last month and this month, to Barclays, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan Chase, HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland, and UBS, the person said.
The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
American and British regulators have already fined Barclays, based in Britain, $453 million for submitting false information between 2005 and 2009 to keep the interest rate, known as LIBOR, low.
LIBOR, short for London interbank offered rate, is used to set the interest rates on trillions of dollars in contracts around the world, including mortgages and credit cards.
It is a self-policing system and relies on information that global banks submit to a British banking authority.
The New York and Connecticut attorneys general issued the subpoenas because LIBOR is also used to determine the rates for the bonds issued by city and county governments, the person with knowledge of the matter told AP.
Barclays has admitted that it submitted figures that were lower than accurate for its interbank borrowing, including during the financial crisis in the fall of 2008. Those reports made it appear that Barclays was healthier than it was.
UBS filed a report with regulators July 31 saying that agencies including state attorneys general were examining whether it and other banks had tried to manipulate the rate. A spokeswoman for Barclays declined further comment.
Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase declined comment.
Send the CEO’s all to Gitmo. Let them rot over there……. Make them clean Castros toilets
Yeah, you know these guys will be brought to justice real soon. Any minute now. Any day now. And when they are, they be slapped with a million dollar fine(between them all) and get 40 lashes with a wet noodle and made to promise they’ll try harder not to fkup. You can see how thay went after Corzine. BTW, he’s opening up a new hedge fund. Learned his lesson
If this were merely a game, we wouldn’t put up with this sort of cheating behavior. Why are we putting up with it in real life? The bankers cheat with impunity.
HAHAHA!!! It definitely reflects the real world bullshit bankers. And I agree. WHY DO WE PUT UP WITH THIS BS??!!!! It’s all a game and we just have to refuse to play and walk away. It’s as easy as that.