Supervision of the Libor interbank rate (London Interbank Offered Rate) will be handed over to Nyse-Euronext, the company that manages the New York Stock Exchange. This was announced by the British Treasury which underlines how this sale was necessary in order to restore "the credibility" of this rate.
After the scandal over the manipulation of the Libor which a year ago had involved several "big" banks of the City of London, the British authorities had recommended last September to transfer the fixation and Libor management, a rate assessed on a daily basis which is one of the references for finance at a global level. During an investigation it was discovered that several banks belonging to the British Bankers' Association (BBA), the British banking association, then responsible for Libor, had attempted to manipulate the rate to their own advantage. Barclays, UBS and the Royal Bank of Scotland have been fined more than $2,5 billion by market regulators in Britain and the United States for this reason and other companies are still under investigation.
The UK's Financial Markets Supervisory Authority (FCA) took over responsibility for Libor in April and has now relinquished it following a auction procedure, which began in February, in which the financial information group Bloomberg and the London Stock Exchange also participated.
The transitional period for the handover will end in early 2014.
