LONDON — The recent Libor rate-fixing scandal that rocked financial sectors of Europe earlier this month has resulted not in a mea cuplpa, but in banks now plotting to use a British parliamentary inquiry into their conduct as an invitation to charge fees on otherwise free customer accounts, reports the Daily Mail.
Several banks are expected to make the case that ‘free’ accounts were partly to blame for reckless actions by lenders and scandals such as the mis-selling of payment protection insurance. Sir David Walker, Barclays’ new chairman, said the scandals were a ‘consequence of not charging for bank accounts’, and said in principle he agreed with charging fees.
Stateside, the attorneys general of New York and Connecticut have issued subpoenas to seven banks over the possible manipulation of a global interest rate. Subpoenas were issued in July and August to Barclays, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan Chase, HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland and UBS.
American and British regulators have already fined Barclays, based in Britain, $453 million for submitting false information between 2005 and 2009 to keep the interest rate, known as Libor, low.
Libor, short for London Interbank Offered Rate, is used to set the interest rates on trillions of dollars in contracts around the world, including mortgages and credit cards.