Libor 'Structurally Flawed,' Says Fed

[trackwhack]

So this is rich coming from the most indebted entity in the world - The Federal Reserve of America. But still it is music to the ears when you hear about Londons dream of remaining finance capital of the world going down the drain.

And Mr, Bernanke, the Fed will follow suit sooner or later and will be replaced by a new institution. Its the only way out of 15 trillion in debt.

Libor is "structurally flawed" and an international effort would be needed to restore the rate's credibility as the leading benchmark for mortages, derivatives and corporate lending around the world, Ben Bernanke, US Federal Reserve chairman, told Congress on Tuesday.
In his first public testimony since Barclays paid $460m in penalties for attempting to rig the London interbank offered rate, Mr Bernanke said US central bankers became concerned about "problems" with Libor toward the end of 2007, when market rumours began to circulate that banks were understating the rates at which they could borrow.

"The Libor system is structurally flawed," Mr Bernanke said. "It is a major problem for our financial system and for the confidence in the financial system ... we need to address it."
The Fed chairman also suggested that Libor's future might be in doubt, telling the Senate banking committee: "I would like to see additional reforms to the Libor process, assuming that Libor will continue to be a benchmark for financial contracts."
In April 2008, a Barclays employee told an analyst at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York that the UK bank was lowballing its Libor submissions in order not to appear weaker than its peers.
Mr Bernanke said the Ne......

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/8f7fa84c-d02f-11e1-bcaa-00144feabdc0.html#axzz20z2liXhg

 

[Armand2REP]

Libor is going to cost London banks $35 billion in lawsuits. Spread over years it is just a slap of the wrist. What it will do is bring regulation to The City and separate speculative finance from legitimate banking. It will force Parliament to submit to EU banking rules.