The American and European Courts, which are investigating the Libor scandal, want to arrest the speculators on charges of collusion for manipulating interests.
The US Federal Court in Washington DC recently contacted the lawyers representing the suspects, i.e. the defense, to inform them of the imminent arrest of their clients.
The defense confirmed the prosecution's willingness to request the arrest of the suspects.
This means that the picture is finally emerging as to how the suspicions affected the London Interbank Offered Rate, better known as Libor. The crimes committed could also turn into heavy fines against the banks.
But it is not only in the United States that the investigations in the Libor case are moving; the case is also being analyzed in Europe. In Europe, however, the investigations are focusing on a circle of speculators who presumably attempted to cheat the parameters of the interest rates as in the Libor case.
A source said that "the charges followed by individual arrests have no impact on the banks' investigation, but they hope the courts will see this process as more due to the initiative of individuals and not the institution."
Furthermore, it appears that the prosecution is analyzing the emails of a group of speculators, and appears to be close to completing the picture of how this group has manipulated the percentages, which are based on the daily average of the estimates provided by the banks.
More than a handful of speculators in different banks are involved.
An encore investigation into the Euribor (Euro Interbank Offered Rate) is also envisaged.
However, it is not clear how many people and banks the American Court is more focused on.
The investigations, on the other hand, are moving faster since Barclays agreed to pay a $453 million fine last month.
Obviously this scandal has opened a debate on the integrity of Libor.
Morgan Stanley has estimated that for all of 2014, all banks involved in the Libor case could pay $14 billion in fines, penalties and legal costs.
