Not only Barclaysthat scandal of manipulation of interbank rates crosses the British borders, sails through the English Channel and lands in Germany. The Bafin, the supervisory authority on the German Stock Exchange, has assured that it wants to investigate the giant Deutsche Bank, accused like his English cousin of having played dirty on Libor rates. Heavy suspicions also weigh on other big names in world finance such as Rbs, Société Générale, Citigroup e Jp-Morgan.
In short, an international storm is announced. And Brussels tries to react. Michel Barnier, European commissioner for financial affairs, announced from Aix-en-Provence that he wants to propose a tightening of the rules of the banking market.
In particular, Barnier would like to broaden the scope of the rules on market abuse, in order to prevent the manipulation of financial ratios. "Anyone who intends to manipulate the markets - said the commissioner - must know that he will have to face sanctions, possibly including those of a criminal nature".
Meanwhile investigations continue in Great Britain. The Serious Fraud Office (SFO), the office that deals with financial crimes, opened a criminal investigation last week. Parliament is also at work. L'now former CEO of Barclays, Bob Diamond, has already been questioned. Today it's the turn of Paul Tucker, one of the deputy governors of the Bank of England, while tomorrow it will be the turn of Paul Agius, who recently resigned from the presidency of Barlclays.
The latest controversy that has exploded on English soil is the one on Diamond's severance pay (also forced to resign by the scandal), which could go as far as asking for 17 million pounds. Public opinion is enraged and the top management of the Bank are afraid of aggravating the already heavy damage to the image suffered by the institution.
It is a pity, however, that the British government wants to continue to support the controversial practice of bonuses in Europe. The champion of managers is the British Finance Minister, George Osborne, who - according to Treasury sources quoted by the Financial Times - on Tuesday will argue in front of his European colleagues "the risk that salaries will increase" if the policy of maxi-premiums were to stop . The City must be protected, come what may.
