It's the "interest rate benchmark commonly known as the Isdafix."
"Citigroup fined for role in rigging interest rates" by Ben Protess and Matthew Goldstein New York Times May 26, 2016
The benchmark is known as the International Swaps and Derivatives Association Fix, or, in Wall Street parlance, the Isdafix. Its rates are published daily for various interest rate derivatives contracts, which banks trade with other financial institutions and sell to clients looking to either hedge against a swing in interest rates or to speculate on the markets.
Citigroup “made false reports” on the swaps and derivatives?
Related: Financial Armageddon Approaches: U.S. Banks Have 247 Trillion Dollars Of Exposure To Derivatives
Yeah, that's TRILLIONS with a T!
As with earlier manipulation cases, regulators plowed through e-mails and instant messages between traders at Citigroup in which they discussed trying to “push” the prices on interest rate swaps to get better deals on derivative transactions the bank was handling. In one March 2008 instant message, a Citigroup trader boasted, “I am very proud of myself,” after telling colleagues he had pushed the prices of a “swap on the screen.”
An indication that traders within Citigroup were working to manipulate the Isdafix is revealed in e-mails sent in 2010 after the publication of a newspaper article on the trading commission’s preliminary investigation. Upon reading the article, some Citigroup derivatives traders responded with comments such as “Game over” or “Ouch.”
That's the entire
Citigroup was not fully forthcoming with the government.
Nice way of saying they lied.
Initially, the bank slowly produced e-mails and made dubious comments about its misconduct, according to the trading commission. Eventually, the bank “discovered and produced evidence showing that its initial statements about certain misconduct were incorrect,” the commission said.
In a separate benchmark-fixing case, Citigroup agreed to resolve claims that it had tried to manipulate the Yen London Interbank Offered Rate, also known as the Yen Libor, and the Euroyen Tokyo Interbank Offered Rate, or the Euroyen Tibor....
How many more _ibors are there out there to manipulate?
--more--"
Related: "A federal appeals court in Manhattan reinstated a civil antitrust case accusing 16 banks of hurting investors who bought securities tied to Libor by manipulating the interest-rate benchmark. Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup Inc. are among the defendants sued in the civil lawsuit in Manhattan. The appeals court overturned a 2013 ruling by US District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald who said the investors had failed to show an antitrust injury that would permit them to sue under US law. About a dozen firms have paid almost $9 billion in fines to resolve investigations around the world into rigging of the key benchmark."
Also see: BofA Hu$tle
