Investors fear that the Libor scandal could somehow damage the already precarious image of the banks in the eyes of British citizens. It is the savers who are concerned, but above all the shareholders of the banks. They too are asking banks for guarantees such as constant "accuracy" in providing information, so that they can provide advice on fines and legal costs in the wake of the Barclays scandal.
Investigators found scores of emails, phone calls and voicemails between 2008 and 2011 to be highly compromising.
The English Financial Services Authority (FSA) has announced that traders at Barclays have wanted to manipulate rates since 2005. Furthermore, they communicated changes in interest rates to each other, so as to be able to earn more on an investment.
One source, an investor, said he was reassured by managers that they had a compliance system, and was surprised when he learned of the secret deals between traders and banks.
In documents disclosed last month, it emerged that a British regulator issued a March 2007 communication between a trader of this hedge fund and an employee of Barclays, known as "Trader E": the trader referred to this as Trader E was aware of an attempted manipulation of the Euribor, another global parameter.
But the real news is another: the British bank Barclays, the first bank at the center of the Libor scandal, wanted to apologize for its role as a "manipulator" of interbank interest rates (Libor), immediately after having published the profits earned in the first six months of this 2012.
The President of the English bank, Marcus Agius, published a press release stating that: “we are very sorry for what happened. However, the bank will continue to focus on its financial performance and services.”
Some employees let Bloomberg know that it was difficult for the bank to put this scandal behind them. But after the words of apology, facts would be needed, otherwise the accusation of hypocrisy is all too easy.
From Japan, however, there are fears that its banks will be involved in the Libor scandal. In fact, the Japanese investigative authorities have launched an investigation into Japanese banks that are feared to be involved in the scandal, but no names have yet been named.
As for the other bank, probably involved in the scandal, the German Deutsche Bank, the market regulator, Bafin, through its president Elke Koenig, made it known in a press release that it is too early to sum up the scandal Libor, as the investigation against Deutsche Bank is still going forward.
Bafin is launching an internal investigation at Deutsche Bank "as a matter of urgency".
Investigators in the United States, Europe and Japan are investigating more than a dozen major banks over the interbank interest rate scandal.
The German bank, Deutsche Bank, declined to comment on the bank's internal investigation report yesterday.
German market regulators would like to create an all-European "controller" of banks, which will include institutions from all 27 member countries.
