The rate-fixing scandal is quite simply a systemic cultural failure. London burns and the ramifications are difficult to quantify. Even so, you cannot deny the gift-wrapped opportunity for the US. Opportune US regulators can now, at last, justify / demand or fix associated trade in US dollars. The expected shift in trading and jobs away from London to New York should, if nothing else, convince the global community that Europe's star has waned.
As for the individuals specifically implicated in the so-called rate-fixing scandal, whether they emanate out of Whitehall, the BOE or from the formal financial community only, there are a range of criminal sanctions and punitive guidelines covered by legislation. Deliberate attempts to rig or manipulate interest rates allow for little justification and although there is evidence of unsubstantiated mudslinging, the ramifications for the individuals so implicated, are dire.
In a remarkable quirk of timing, today's testimony by a US-born ex-CEO of a UK bank could denote a banking shift away from London to the US. Free at last?
Wishing our US friends a safe and Happy 4th of July.
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