Osborne: rate rigging by RBS, others "totally unacceptable"
LONDON |
LONDON (Reuters) - Chancellor George Osborne on Wednesday criticised in the strongest terms the manipulation of global benchmark interest rates by the Royal Bank of Scotland and other banks.
"What happened at RBS and other banks is totally unacceptable," he told reporters.
"At my insistence, the bankers, not the taxpayers, will pick up the bill. Those people who did wrong will face the full force of the law... In 2013 our reforms are turning people's anger into a positive force for change," he added.
Britain's RBS will pay U.S. and British authorities $615 million and plead guilty to wire fraud in Japan to settle allegations it rigged the London interbank offered rate (Libor), used to price trillions of dollars' worth of loans.
More than a dozen traders at RBS offices in London, Singapore and Tokyo manipulated Libor from at least 2006 until 2010.
In a bid to avoid a political firestorm, the part state-owned bank will cut into its staff bonuses to pay the fines.
(Reporting by David Milliken and William Schomberg, writing by Olesya Dmitracova)
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If I am to be granted three wishes can I also have the Governments of the past 30 years asked questions about why they think they have a right to deficit spend?
My final wish would be to scold the public for not realising what deficit spending actually means.
Deficit spending is where we appear to get back more from the Government than we ‘gave’ them in taxes. So we get a lot more ‘free stuff’. The ‘cost’ of this game, where the public appear to win is INFLATION. The public actually lose.
Inflation is where your money becomes worth less over time.
Deflation is where your money becomes more valuable over time.
Have a think.
Three wishes over and I spent none on myself.
(sarcasm on)
I am such a loser!
I should have asked for a mansion (on a mortgage)
a red Ferrari (on finance) and
a million pounds in a bank account (on a pay day loan)
Then I would be rich.
(sarcasm off)
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