20 more banks were rigging interest rates: British bankers now facing criminal inquiry over scandal that was kept secret for years [1]

20 more banks were rigging interest rates: British bankers now facing criminal inquiry over scandal that was kept secret for years

 

 

 

• Barclays shares drop 15 per cent as pressure on Diamond grows
• George Osborne promises new criminal sanctions for market abusers
• RBS, HSBC and Lloyds all named as under investigation as scandal widens

By JAMES CHAPMAN [2], BECKY BARROW [3], RUTH SUNDERLAND [4] and ROB DAVIES [5]

 

 

Hundreds of bankers across three continents are embroiled in the interest-rate fixing scandal that has left Barclays chief executive Bob Diamond fighting to save his job.

As pressure intensified on Britain’s highest paid banking boss to quit, MPs heard a string of other financial institutions across the world were under investigation.

At least 20 banks are believed to be under suspicion, with growing demands for a criminal investigation.

 

 

Barclays’ shares crashed by 15.5 per cent in a day as the implications sank in, wiping £3.7billion from its value, with other banks also hit.

Barclays has been fined £290million after devastating emails revealed that its traders manipulated the London Interbank Rate (Libor) – the rate at which banks lend money to each other.

Chancellor George Osborne told the Commons the exchanges ‘read like an epitaph to an age of irresponsibility’.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2166242/Barclays-20-banks-including-HSBC-facing-criminal-inquiry-rate-fix-scandal.html#ixzz1zAXTuh1Q [6]