Recording suggests Bank of England pushed commercial banks to rig Libor

Maria Nikolova

“We’ve had some very serious pressure from the UK government and the Bank of England about pushing our Libors lower” – senior Barclays manager Mark Dearlove says in the recording.

banks

The Libor (London Interbank Offered Rate) rigging investigation has been high on the agenda lately, with more developments on the matter coming from the UK.

A secret recording, uncovered by BBC Panorama, implicates the Bank of England in the Libor rigging scandal. The recording, dating back to 2008, involves a talk between senior Barclays manager Mark Dearlove and Libor submitter Peter Johnson, with Mr Dearlove instructing Mr Johnson to lower the Libor rates, a practice known as lowballing:

“The bottom line is you’re going to absolutely hate this… but we’ve had some very serious pressure from the UK government and the Bank of England about pushing our Libors lower.”

“The fact of the matter is we’ve got the Bank of England, all sorts of people involved in the whole thing… I am as reluctant as you are… these guys have just turned around and said just do it”, Mr Dearlove says in the recording.

The recording casts doubt over the truthfulness of statements given in 2012 to the Treasury select committee by ex-Barclays head Bob Diamond and Paul Tucker. Back in 2012, both claimed they had only recently got aware of the lowballing.

Peter Charles Johnson, a submitter, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud in October 2014. He was sentenced to four years in prison.

Peter Charles Johnson, Jonathan James Mathew and Stylianos Contogoulas were charged on February 17, 2014 with Conspiracy to Defraud, with relation to an investigation by the UK Serious Fraud Office into the manipulation of US Dollar LIBOR. Peter Johnson pleaded guilty in October 2014, the first criminal conviction for a LIBOR offence in the UK – he was sentenced to four years in prison.

Last week, two former Barclays traders were acquitted of charges of Conspiracy to Defraud, with regards to a LIBOR rigging investigation. Stylianos Contogoulas and Ryan Michael Reich were acquitted by a jury at Southwark Crown Court following a retrial.

BBC Panorama played the 2008 recording to Mr Contogoulas. He commented that playing the recording during the criminal trials might have had an impact on the outcomes.

Read this next

Digital Assets

Sam Bankman-Fried might see his 25-year sentence halved

Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX, was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison by a Manhattan court on Thursday. This comes after he was convicted of defrauding customers and investors, with Judge Lewis Kaplan highlighting the potential future risks posed by Bankman-Fried.

Technical Analysis

EURJPY Technical Analysis Report 28 March, 2024

EURJPY currency pair under the bearish pressure after the pair reversed down from the major resistance level 164.25, which also stopped the sharp weekly uptrend at the end of last year,

Digital Assets

BlockDAG’s Presale Hits $9.9M, MultiversX & MINA Price Predictions Show Green

Read about BlockDAG’s promising $10 prediction and insights on MultiversX Price Prediction as MINA’s potential unfolds.

Digital Assets

Rockstar Co-Founder and All-star Line Up Join Advisory Board to Take Metacade into Post Beta Orbit

Metacade, the revolutionary Web3 gaming platform, prepares to streak out of beta with a slew of ground-breaking initiatives that will redefine the way blockchain games are developed.

Retail FX

Prop firm The Funded Trader shuts down, claims relaunch in April

Prop trading firm The Funded Trader has ceased all operations, with claims for a relaunch in the near future.

Digital Assets

Ethereum-Based Tokenized Real Estate Platform USP Launches On Republic

How This Californian Startup Is Revolutionizing Real Estate Investment through Ethereum-Based Tokenization.

Digital Assets

Sui Spikes in Weekly DEX Volume, Joins Top 10 of All Blockchains

March DEX volume on Sui stands at over $2.88B – up more than 49% from February – with decentralized exchange Cetus and wholesale liquidity layer DeepBook leading.

Digital Assets

Prisma Finance suffers $10 million crypto exploit, attack ongoing

Liquid staking protocol Prisma Finance fell victim to a security exploit on March 28, resulting in nearly $10 million in Prisma mkUSD and wrapped stETH being stolen by hackers.

Digital Assets

Masa and LayerZero: Bridging Blockchains for Data Sovereignty

Masa Network is poised to revolutionize the personal data landscape with its upcoming launch as a cross-chain platform, making it accessible on a variety of blockchains right from the start.

<