The British Financial Services Authority is wresting oversight of the London interbank lending rate from the British Bankers Association as part of an overhaul of the process by which Libor is set. The British government will take a more hands on role, and submissions will be delayed for three months, perhaps diminishing the temptation to rig rates for the purpose of managing perception of a bank’s health.
Right on time, The Wall Street Journal has an “analysis” that shows Libor doesn’t actually reflect banks’ borrowing costs.
Kareem Serageldin, the former head of Credit Suisse’s CDO business arrested in London on Wednesday, said he will fight extradition to the U.S. When Mr. Serageldin was charges in February for running a scheme to falsify trading positions, he expressed surprise over the indictment, noting through lawyers that he was cooperating with attorneys. When he was nabbed outside the U.S. embassy in London this week, he said through a lawyer that he was working on a plea deal, and that his capture was the result of “miscommunication.”Investors pulled capital from Spain for the 13th straight month.
Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner is wading into the void left when the Securities and Exchange Commission decided not to propose new rules for money market funds.
The White House is circulating a draft executive order on cyber-security after a string of DDoS attacks on the consumer banking websites of Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and other financial firms.
Former Lehman Brothers CFO Erin Callan is flying her East Hampton coop.
A forgery suit against Allen & Co. CEO Herb Allen—who was being sued on claims that he had conspired to forge a dying cousin’s will—has been dismissed.
True story? A British oil trader got blotto, bought $520 million in oil futures in the middle of the night, had no recollection of any of it. The Financial Services Authority suspended him for five years, commented dryly: “Mr Perkins poses an extreme risk to the market when drunk.”
Would you give money to a hedge fund called POOF? Would you be surprised to learn that said fund’s manager just coughed up $6.8 million to settle cherry-picking charges—that he stuck clients with losing trades and moved profit-making trades to his wife’s account?
“This is a great day for the art world and all those who seek order and justice in our society”: Bond king Jeffrey Gundlach’s Mondrian has been recovered.
