Observer: The pledge made by one UBS trader – “I’m a man of my word” – seems a fine sentiment, until the realisation dawns that the promise he is making is to do “one humongous deal” with a broker to help him manipulate the Libor rate. …..”I will fucking do one humongous deal with you … Like a 50,000-buck deal, whatever … I need you to keep it as low as possible … If you do that … I’ll pay you, you know, $50,000, $100,000 … whatever you want.” The revelations contained in the documents published alongside last week’s settlement with regulators in the UK, US and Switzerland, as they fined UBS £940m, came at the end of a year of shame for banking. ….Taxpayers who had hoped the multibillion-pound rescues of Northern Rock, RBS and Lloyds Banking Group marked the darkest days of the financial crisis have instead watched with horror as increased scrutiny from the world’s regulators has uncovered a consistent pattern of misbehaviour and, in some cases, outright fraud.”
Future Today
