Monday, 07 January 2013 10:12
FSA and UBS staff to give evidence on Libor scandal
Staff from UBS and the Financial Services Authority will be giving evidence to the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards this week regarding the UBS Libor scandal.
The group will be meeting on Thursday 10 January and the commission want to find out both what happened at UBS and how the FSA failed to properly regulate the actions of the firm.
In December 2012, UBS was fined £940m by international regulators in the UK, USA and Switzerland for its manipulation of the Libor rate.
At the time, Andrew Tyrie MP, chairman of the commission, described the actions as "appalling" and requested the people involved give evidence.
He said: "This is the manipulation of one of the world's most important benchmarks over many years for profit, with extensive collusion, corruption and much else besides.
"It's not just the culture and standards in the banking industry that have slipped badly. It appears to be a manifest failure of regulation. We will look at both."
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Problems included UBS manipulating submissions to benchmark rates, colluding with employees at other banks to influence benchmark rates and giving inappropriate directions to UBS rate submitters that were motivated by a desire to avoid negative press coverage.
The FSA will also be in Parliament on Wednesday 9 January to give evidence regarding mis-selling and cross-selling of financial products.
Clive Briault, former managing director of retail markets, and Jon Pain, former managing director of supervision, will both be giving evidence. They will be joined by Peter Vicary-Smith, chief executive of Which?, Angela Knight, former chief executive of the British Bankers Association, and Peter Davies, former deputy chairman of the Competition Commission.
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The group will be meeting on Thursday 10 January and the commission want to find out both what happened at UBS and how the FSA failed to properly regulate the actions of the firm.
In December 2012, UBS was fined £940m by international regulators in the UK, USA and Switzerland for its manipulation of the Libor rate.
At the time, Andrew Tyrie MP, chairman of the commission, described the actions as "appalling" and requested the people involved give evidence.
He said: "This is the manipulation of one of the world's most important benchmarks over many years for profit, with extensive collusion, corruption and much else besides.
"It's not just the culture and standards in the banking industry that have slipped badly. It appears to be a manifest failure of regulation. We will look at both."
{desktop}{/desktop}{mobile}{/mobile}
Problems included UBS manipulating submissions to benchmark rates, colluding with employees at other banks to influence benchmark rates and giving inappropriate directions to UBS rate submitters that were motivated by a desire to avoid negative press coverage.
The FSA will also be in Parliament on Wednesday 9 January to give evidence regarding mis-selling and cross-selling of financial products.
Clive Briault, former managing director of retail markets, and Jon Pain, former managing director of supervision, will both be giving evidence. They will be joined by Peter Vicary-Smith, chief executive of Which?, Angela Knight, former chief executive of the British Bankers Association, and Peter Davies, former deputy chairman of the Competition Commission.
• Want to receive a free weekly summary of the best news stories from our website? Just go to home page and submit your name and email address. If you are already logged in you will need to log out to see the e-newsletter sign up. You can then log in again.
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