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Libor, long the most important number in finance, dies at 52

nytimes.com

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Re: Libor, long the most important number in finance, dies at 52

#3
TLDR;

“Libor was the interest rate that banks themselves had to pay, so it offered a convenient base line for the rates they charged customers who wanted to borrow cash to buy a home or issue a security to finance a business expansion.”

“Because Libor relied on self-reported estimates, it was possible for a bank to submit a rate that was artificially high or low, thus making certain financial holdings more profitable.”

“Libor could no longer be used to calculate new deals as of Dec. 31 — more than six years after a former UBS trader was jailed for his efforts to manipulate it and others were fired, charged or acquitted.”

Re: Libor, long the most important number in finance, dies at 52

#10
> In 1986, at age 17, it hit the big time: Libor was taken in by the British Bankers Association, a trade group described later by The New York Times as a “club of gentlemen bankers.”

What are the chances that this "club of gentlemen bankers" always intended to manipulate Libor to some extent?

I know finance and banking is very complicated; maybe someone will come along who happens to have been a banker in London in 1986 and will set me straight. Otherwise I find it hard to limit my cynicism when enormous amounts of money are involved.

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