It is the life for bank profits, folks!
Related: BANK Cabal Exposed, Video: History's Largest Banking Corruption Scandal, 16 Banks Stole From Every Single Human On The Planet.. Not One Person Was Left Out. Not Even You.
That's odd; my banker's mouthpiece called a newspaper plays that down.
"Regulators’ role in Libor saga reviewed; Congress is said to be seeking N.Y. Fed’s response" by Ben Protess and Mark Scott | New York Times, July 10, 2012
As big banks face the fallout from a global investigation into interest rate manipulation, US and British lawmakers are scrutinizing regulators who failed to take action that might have prevented years of illegal activity.
Wow, does that ever sound familiar to this American.
I wonder how many billions of trillions the banks skimmed with their scams.
Politicians in both London and Washington are questioning whether regulators allowed banks to report false rates in the run-up to the 2008 financial crisis and afterward. On Monday, Congress stepped into the fray, requesting information about the role of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, according to people close to the matter.
So Tim Geithner would have been working there at that time. And now he is Treasury Secretary.
The focus on regulators and other financial institutions has intensified in the past two weeks since the British bank Barclays agreed to pay $450 million to resolve its case. British and US authorities accused the bank of improperly influencing key interest rates to deflect concerns about its health and bolster profits.
F*** your health, customers.
The Barclays settlement is the first action stemming from a broad investigation into how banks set key benchmarks, including the London interbank offered rate, or Libor. The pricing of $350 trillion of financial products, including credit cards, mortgages, and student loans, is pegged to Libor and other such rates.
Oh, you poor kids!!
Authorities around the world are now considering action against more than 10 big banks, including UBS, JPMorgan, and Citigroup.
Turns out the private banking system is the greatest criminal fraud ever perpetrated on the planet.
The banks also face a raft of civil litigation from municipalities, investors, and other financial firms that claim they lost money from the misreporting of rates....
The political firestorm also escalated in London on Monday, where a British parliamentary committee chided Paul Tucker, deputy governor at the Bank of England, the country’s central bank, for not taking a more active role in Libor.
In November 2007, Tucker led a meeting in which some officials raised concerns that banks were underreporting Libor submissions to temper concerns about their health, a process known as lowballing.
“This doesn’t look good, Mr. Tucker,’’ Andrew Tyrie, the head of the parliamentary committee, said Monday, referring to minutes of the meeting.
--more--"
Related: Outgoing Barclays’ chief grilled by UK panel
Ex-Barclays chief Bob Diamond forfeits $31m
Ex-Barclays CEO hits back
Oh, looter!
Related: LIBOR Banker Bails on Romney
But he is still going: Mitt Romney reveals London fund-raising events
Even though McCain warned him not to?
And now for the REAL KICKER:
"Mass. officials examine state impact of Libor scandal" by Steven Syre | Globe Staff, July 11, 2012
Massachusetts prosecutors will meet with state finance officials next week to examine whether public agencies lost money when a key interest rate used to price loans and credit around the world was manipulated by bankers several years ago.
Now you know why you had to give back pension and health benefits!!
The meeting is prompted by the growing scandal involving rate-fixing of the one of the world’s most widely used interest benchmarks, the London interbank overnight rate, or Libor as it is known.
“No one can look at this and not be concerned about the potential impact,” said state Treasurer Steven Grossman. “My obligation is to protect the taxpayers’ money.”
However, Grossman said it was “premature” to determine if the state had suffered any actual loss.
They protect banks whenever they can, don't they?
Meanwhile, large nonprofit institutions and investment management firms in Massachusetts said Wednesday they were following developments in the unfolding scandal and trying to determine whether they had been affected.
Based on interest charges reported by the world’s major banks, Libor is used to determine lending rates for trillions of dollars of credit, from loans between financial institutions to credit cards and adjustable-rate mortgages.
It is also used to determine rates on financial investments known as interest-rate swaps that many borrowers, including municipalities and government agencies, buy as insurance policies to help manage their debt costs. If Libor was manipulated to artificially low levels, swap holders could have been shortchanged....
Good God, they sold you deals that put you into debt and then sold you insurance and rigged the payouts!!
“We are currently investigating the serious allegations around the manipulation of the Libor and working diligently to determine what, if any, impact it may have on Massachusetts investments,” Attorney General Martha Coakley said in a statement. “We are also working with other state agencies to determine whether they have suffered any losses as a result.”
Many Massachusetts agencies owned interest-rate swaps during the period when Libor was allegedly manipulated — around 2007 and 2008. State officials are now trying to determine if they were cheated out of insurance payments from those swaps because the banks set Libor artificially low.
The business of banks!
“We’re following it, and we’re going to look and see what our legal recourse is,” said Jonathan Davis, the acting general manager of the MBTA, which had entered into a dozen interest-rate swap agreements worth a total of $1.6 billion over five years during the previous decade.
And you wonder why that damn thing is falling apart, huh? I keep typing it and typing it here, but YOUR TAX and FEE money is ALL GOING into BANK COFFERS, folks!!
Related: Boston Globe Blind Spot
They finally opened their eye.
The state Department of Transportation is another active participant in interest-rate swaps; in 2010 alone it entered into swap contracts to cover some $800 million in borrowing. The agency is “actively investigating its portfolio for the purpose of determining if it was underpaid,” a spokeswoman said.
And why is it that state agencies -- that's me and you now, taxpayers -- are always getting screwed on these deals and paying out more when the swap hits?
The Massachusetts Water Resources Authority also said it was looking into its longstanding $350 million interest-rate swap agreement to see whether it could have been susceptible to Libor manipulation.
The millions are adding up, 'eh, Massachusetts taxpayers and workers?
Swaps became popular investment tools during the past decade, offering big borrowers such as state agencies the chance to limit the financial exposure when they borrowed money at adjustable rates, as many did.
Btw, WHOSE IDEA WAS THIS?
"During the go-go investing years, school districts, transit agencies, and other government entities were quick to jump into the global economy, hoping for fast gains to cover growing pension costs and budgets without raising taxes. Deals were arranged by armies of persuasive financiers who received big paydays. But now, hundreds of cities and government agencies are facing economic turmoil"
Oooooooooh!!
Borrowers would buy swap contracts from big banks or investment banking firms, typically for the same amounts as they borrowed through variable-rate bonds; the swaps would provide a source of funds to pay higher debt service if interest rates on their bonds rose.
Isn't that what happened?
Also see: State Biting the Hand That Steals From It
Municipal Bond Milking
That's you, readers.
So if the Libor benchmark used to determine the payout from the swaps was manipulated lower, then the holders of those contracts would have received less money. A tiny shift of 0.01 percent on a $100 million contract would change the swap payout by $10,000.
Now imagine TRILLIONS and TRILLIONS, folks. How many MILLIONS are we talking? BILLIONS even?!!!
The amounts in question may turn out to be relatively small — if they can be proven at all.
They won't be able to because no one will be able to say this is what the rate should have been.
So ONCE AGAIN, banks get away with a looting!
But the global market for swaps and other Libor-based investments is huge, exposing the banks accused of manipulation to serious liability.
“A few [hundredths of one percent] times trillions is a lot of money,” said Darrell Duffie, a finance professor at Stanford University....
Many other state and local governments are also investigating whether they lost money from the interest rate manipulation and should sue the big banks at the center of the scandal....
I suspect the banks will cut them a chump change fine as they did the fraudulent foreclosures, and then it will be back to business as usual.
Meanwhile, the investment firm Charles Schwab Corp. has sued major banks over similar allegations of Libor manipulation. Firms like Schwab sometimes invest in interest-rate swaps, especially for money market funds. Fidelity Investments in Boston said Wednesday it had been following developments in the Libor scandal and “we continue to evaluate our options.”
Fidelity got f***ed by banks, too?!?!
Related: Fed Funnels Made Millions Off Mutual Fund Bailout
After they shorted the swaps?
Many local universities also used interest-rate swaps as finance tools over the past decade, including Harvard University and Lesley University.
NO WONDER TUITION is SKYROCKETING!!
Large medical institutions have also used interest-rate swaps. Partners HealthCare, the parent of Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, used more than $500 million in swaps to offset interest rate risks in the past decade. A spokesman said it was too soon to tell if the scandal had any impact.
Related:
Swapping Partners Good For Health
The Massachusetts Model: Partnering With Wall Street
Now I'm feeling really sick.
--more--"
And Fidelity got f***ed on the pensions just like us, huh?
"BNY Mellon overcharged Fidelity, US says" June 23, 2012| Beth Healy
Bank of New York Mellon Corp. secretly manipulated the cost of millions of dollars in currency trades conducted for Boston mutual fund giant Fidelity Investments, according to court documents filed by the Department of Justice in an ongoing investigation of the bank’s foreign exchange pricing.
Federal prosecutors and New York’s attorney general filed civil fraud charges against BNY Mellon last year, alleging that the bank overcharged pension funds and investment managers for certain foreign currency trades and misled them about practices that generated $1.5 billion in revenues....
We call it THIEVERY here at the MSM Monitor.
Now GIVE BACK some of those PENSION and HEALTH BENEFITS!!
At issue in the nationwide investigation of foreign exchange are so-called standing instruction trades, where investors outsource smaller currency transactions to big banks to handle.
Maybe NOT SUCH a GOOD IDEA!!
Even though these trades are more expensive, mutual funds have relied on banks such as BNY Mellon and Boston’s State Street Corp. for the convenience — and only recently learned the banks were making a fortune, allegedly by misleading clients about the actual costs.
We CALL IT LYING here at the MSM Monitor.
And how about those LAZY STATE CUSTODIANS, huh?
According to the government’s allegations, BNY Mellon said on its website and in proposals that it was pricing trades with the client’s interests in mind. But in reality, the bank would often charge clients the worst possible prices, as if they had bought currency at the highest price of the day and sold it at the lowest, according to the complaint.
WHAT SCUM!!!!!!!!!!!!
For instance, in 2008, BNY Mellon secretly cut prices for Fidelity, when the mutual fund firm was doing a large volume of trades, “to prevent Fidelity from noticing and/or complaining that it was receiving such poor pricing,” the Justice Department said in its amended complaint, filed June 6 in federal court in New York. Then in 2009, when Fidelity cut the number of trades it was sending to the bank, BNY Mellon reverted to the usual pricing without consulting Fidelity.
The government’s complaint says BNY Mellon settled in April with Prudential Financial Inc., repaying the Newark, N.J., insurer half the $28 million in fees that it had paid for foreign exchange services.
BNY Mellon spokesman John Heine declined to comment on whether the bank was negotiating a similar settlement with Fidelity.
The bank continues to believe it has a strong legal defense, and felt vindicated by recent dismissals of foreign exchange cases brought by whistle-blowers in California and Virginia, Heine said. As far as the possibility of more settlements, however, “we have also said that we will be pragmatic,” he added.
Yes, BANKS WILL BE PROTECTED by the COURTS of AmeriKan Justice!
Fidelity Investments declined to say whether it is putting pressure on BNY Mellon to make a deal. “We are monitoring information and allegations concerning custodian bank practices,” said Fidelity spokesman Vincent Loporchio.
Take what you can get I gue$$.
State Street also is facing lawsuits alleging it overcharged for foreign exchange. In 2009, the company was the first to be sued in the matter, in a slew of whistle-blower lawsuits led by Harry Markopolos, the whistle-blower in the Bernard Madoff fraud case. State Street denies wrongdoing and is fighting the lawsuits.
Related: State Street Stole From Ohio Pension Fund
Yeah, BNY Mellon screwed Massachusetts taxpayers, too.
Fidelity handles much of its own foreign exchange, and still does business with BNY Mellon as well as other banks, particularly to handle dividend payments on international stocks. Fidelity has a fiduciary duty to get the best deal on trades that it can for its shareholders. In 2008, it did $11 billion in currency business with BNY Mellon, and paid $22.7 million in fees, according to the government’s complaint.
I gue$$ $ome people never learn.
The Massachusetts state pension plan is among those that have alleged that they were overcharged for foreign currency services. Secretary of State William F. Galvin has sued BNY Mellon on the pension plan’s behalf, alleging that it overpaid $29 million in fees.
I'm wondering HOW MUCH HEALTH CARE and PENSION PAYMENTS that would restore!
UPDATE: Judge dismisses Va. case against BNY Mellon
So they GOT AWAY WITH IT, 'eh -- or so sayeth the courts!
The Department of Justice complaint cited the Massachusetts case, alleging that BNY Mellon described its foreign exchange services to the state as providing “competitive rates in a transparent market,’’ while internally touting its profits because of a lack of transparency.
After the State Street lawsuit, when the Massachusetts pension fund asked BNY Mellon about its markup on foreign exchange, the bank pled ignorance, the government alleged.
Un-f***ing-believable!!!!!!!!!!!!
--more--"
Related:
How a Libor scheme works and what it means to consumers
Primer on Libor
Why the Libor scandal matters to everyone
Yes, I'm sure the Globe and Times can answer all your questions.
Also see: LIBOR: the 'mega-scandal of all mega-scandals' is upon us
Eliot Spitzer - LIBOR Mega scandal (total corruption)
