Banks' Libor scandal could mean $millions for Philly
Were swaps rigged?
Banks' Libor scandal could mean $millions for Philly
Joseph N. DiStefano
"I think we are in line to collect from Libor settlements to come," says Philadelphia city treasurer Nancy Winkler. More in my column in Sunday's Philadelphia Inquirer here.
Since a 2008 Wall Street Journal investigation found the Libor benchmark used to price loans, bonds, interest rate swaps and other financial products found signs of manipulation by the major banks that supply data for the index (see links here), the city of Baltimore and other bank victims have been trying to reclaim millions they say they were improperly charged. See lawsuit here.
When I started asking about this a few years back, Philadelphia city and school district treasurers were reluctant to claim they'd been wronged. They had better things to do (like closing schools and raising property taxes and getting the banks to sell new bonds) than trying to fight the markets and litigate swap refunds.
But now that it turns out their losses were artificially magnified, city officials are starting to hope they could claw back some of the lost millions after all.
But but there is no fraud in the financial sector ever according to everybody!! you must be mistaken.
where there is one cockroach there is only one.
sarcasm/on
sarcasm/on— Tageman- why isn't this story front page news in every paper in america????
is American idol on or something???— Tageman - The libor scandel actually favored borrowers and hurt lenders because banks were lying that they were paying a lower rate than they actually were.— flyers2thecup
- No, Flyers2, read the linked column, and you'll realize, big banks are not primarily business lenders anymore; they are traders and investment bankers; low rates are good for the big banks' trading and investment sales desks; that's the point.— Joe D
- this is perhaps the largest scale crime in human history. yet nobody seems to care. the banks running amok is the number 1 issue of our time. if we don't bring them to justice, swiftly and decisively, they will continue to enslave us all.
Thomas Jefferson once said that unchecked power of banks was a bigger threat to the US than all the standing armies in the world. he was right.— Ryan - Just waiting for "the City" to give the legal work to the best-connected, highest-priced-per-hour center city law firm they can find... Then, "magically", the amount of money actually realized will be quite small. Isn't that the typical "Philly" m.o.?— dee99999
- Read Griftopia by Matt Taibbi to get a real account of the white collar criminals running wall street and what they are doing to our economy.— non excidet
