Libor – fixing the game

Timon Molloy, Editor

Frantic telephone waving as figures flick red, blue, green on multiple screens: but frenetic activity on the trading desks shouldn’t disturb those across a bank’s Chinese wall. Like submitters, for example, whose estimates of rates at which their institution is able to borrow on the interbank markets contribute directly to setting Libor and Euribor – benchmark indices integral to pricing US$350 trillion in notional value of derivatives contracts, not to mention mortgages, credit card and student loans.