Vocal Voices

so the " banks" have been fined 2 billion--who gets it ?

"banks" are an institution ,they can't do anything on their "own",so who is/are the person/s responsible for rigging the exchange rates? somebody must have authorised it ,it could'nt just "happen"

so presumably "someone" should be charged

We see this all the time. Companies, institutions, hospital trusts, they all get fined, very often for the work practices of their staff or failings in work procedures. The results, the fallout, form these fines mainly hits the customers and service users. What we rearely see are punishments for those failing staff, except the ones at the very bottom of the pile. The supervisors, managers and board members either get to resign with all benefits in tact, or they move sideways to another position. The same is true of the 'gatekeepers' we pay to watch over things. Lesson will be learnt and they will all take a deep breath and be oh so sorry........ till next time.

That is what has happened today. The "fines" will be paid out of the monies us taxpayers were forced to had over to keep these banks afloat. No heads will roll, nobody will walk the plank, no bonuses handed back. Tomorrow it will be business as usual, and the spivs will be looking for another scheme.

In this particular case, the governments have very little firm ground to stand on. What we are talking about is LIBOR. Or the London Inter Bank Offer Rate.

Simply put LIBOR was regulated on a sort of "gentleman's agreement" and not by laws and FSA rules. The banks, which are, in fact, companies, not institutions, with shareholders boards and executives; were making false statements as to their willingness to buy currency at a fictional value. These statements were made to bolster the bank in turbulent times. Nobody could have imagined what would actually have happened. If we look back over the decades we will no doubt see that this is a normal activity to stabilise the markets in a panic.

Also I note that it has been very quickly forgotten that Barclays recorded the Governors of the Bank of England encouraging them to "bid down" their LIBOR offers. Barclays almost certainly could tell them to go stuff it and may yet do so. After all they were just about the only large bank NOT playing the game.

Note, also, that all banks who are charged with this activity have either suspended or dismissed staff who are responsible for it. Which is the normal activity of a company. Any who were deemed to have been ringleaders in an organised effort to "rig" the system will probably face criminal charges.

Note that if their action had retained confidence and we had not see a crash, their actions would have been lauded as "saving" the financial system. But it did not because the crisis was far too big. So now they are the villains in a cesspool of a play.

See the Libor explained. Note the break out specifically for Barclays. Also note they did not take up the "Deal" of being fined....

So what's the big deal?

Well, actually, it is about Governments who were caught with their trousers down in the wrong bedroom. It was their job to regulate this and they, singularly, failed to do so. So, now, these politicians are suffering an acute enlargement of the spleen and have to "mete out punishments" for their own failings.

Of course we have the other dynamic to this as well. Note it's the London rate, not the New York rate..... Something the US does not like at all.

I'm getting a little tired of the "bad bankers" hobby horse. They're not Satan and, just to push the point, if RBS doesn't make a profit this year because of the fines, then the Government will have to push back those fines into the RBS. Meaning that all the other banks have paid to bolster the RBS, just to assuage a political guilt. Who pays when banks lose profit??? We do!

A little less rhetoric and a lot more pragmatism is needed. But we're not going to see it. The press need a new hobby horse and governments need to stop second guessing and get on with rebuilding economies.

End of rant.

Damn! (slaps forehead with enough force to down a Hippo) I really must get over my ire with the chaps and chapesses in the City. It must be so draining on them to be constantly seen as the bad guys.

I am so concerned that I am thinking of going to the Post Office to get them a £10 postal order and possibly a box of Cadbury's Roses. If we all did that, every man, woman and child of us, they would get about £650m to see them through these hard times. Of course that is nothing compared to the £2,000 they have already had from every man, woman and child, but as the saying goes - "Every little helps".

Really you must.... They are now, officially, the whipping boy of unaccountable and grossly negligent governments.... Ably assisted by a press who want to be spoon fed instead of actually working for a living....