Wednesday, July 04, 2012

Not My Fault, I'm Only The CEO

Like his colleague, Jamie Dimon, Bob Diamond, CEO of Barclays, blamed the this week's banking headline attraction on his underlings,"reprehensible" traders. The Barclays scandal came about because the bank lied when reporting its rates which are part of the Libor (London Interbank Offered Rates). Libor is a key factor in how much interest you and I pay. Who knows how much these "reprehensible" traders - not Mr. Diamond - cost us? Surely, it's more than the $450,000,000 paid in fines last week to the U.S. and England. 

One might say that Diamond as well as the bank's chairman and its COO did the right thing and resigned. There has been no mention of their severance packages. I'm sure they are substantial. 

It also looks as though Barclays is not alone in this rate-fixing. The following banks are also being investigated: Deutsche Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland, Credit Suisse, UBS, Citigroup, JPMorgan and Bank of America.

No comments: