Wall Street’s latest billion-dollar scandal might end with a prison sentence for some traders. The federal government recently announced they are pursuing an investigation of banks and traders who have been manipulating LIBOR rates. The LIBOR rate, or London InterBank Offered Rate, is the average lending rate banks in London use when lending to other banks.
Banks were illegally setting their own LIBOR rates lower than the actual rate and then persuading municipalities and pension funds to bet against the rate. Ultimately, the banks would come out on top with millions of dollars from the municipalities. The banks were also giving Wall Street traders access to the systems they used to set up the manipulated rates so they could go in and change them as they saw fit. So far the research into the investigation shows that this could be a $750 million scheme. The two banks that have been targeted in the investigation are Barclays and Deutsche. Analysts believe this scandal will far exceed the repercussions of the mortgage/foreclosure scandal for Wall Street.
In addition, many Wall Street traders may find themselves facing jail time over the scandal. These recent events are having a powerful impact on the credibility of Wall Street.
To read more on this story visit: http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2012/03/23/the-wall-street-multibillion-scandal-no-one-is-talking-about/
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