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Prime
 minister David Cameron has said that Barclays Bank management has 
"serious questions" to answer over how it manipulated banking lending 
rates.
Barclays was fined £290m ($450m) after an investigation into 
claims that several banks manipulated the Libor rate at which they lend 
to each other.
        The comments came as former Barclays boss Martin Taylor said the bank has engaged in "systematic dishonesty".
        Barclays has said its actions "fell well short of standards".
        Other banks are still being investigated by UK and US regulators about their role in the affair.
        Mr Cameron, speaking during a visit to Todmorden, West 
Yorkshire, said: "I think the whole management team have got some 
serious questions to answer. Let them answer those questions first.
        "Who was responsible? Who was going to take responsibility? How are they being held accountable?"
        Labour party leader, Ed Miliband, said: "This cannot be about a slap on the wrist."
        "The people that have done the wrong thing in this case 
should face the full force of the law... including criminal 
prosecutions."
  
 
 
    
     
            
Regulators say that Barclays 
manipulated interest rates at which banks loan to each other to benefit 
their traders and financial status.
        Mr Taylor said that Barclays' deception looks like a deliberate strategy as it had been going on for years.
        Tracey McDermott, director of enforcement at the FSA, which 
imposed fines alongside the US financial regulator, told the BBC: "We 
have a number of investigations that are ongoing.
        "Obviously we need to look at each case on its own particular
 facts but the initial indications are that Barclays was not the only 
firm that was involved in this."
        The US Department of Justice also said criminal 
investigations into "other financial institutions and individuals" were 
ongoing.  
        Other big names believed to be under investigation include 
Citigroup, JP Morgan, Deutsche Bank, HSBC and Royal Bank of Scotland. 
  
 
 
    
Lord Myners: This is the most corrosive behaviour I have seen in a major UK financial institution in my career
 
The scandal is putting pressure on Mr Diamond.
        Mr Taylor, who was chief executive of Barclays from 1994 to 
1998, said: "It's hard to believe that a policy which seems to be so 
systematic was not known by people at or very near the top of the bank."
        Former City minister Lord Myners told the BBC that the people at the top should take responsibility.
        The Liberal Democrat peer, Lord Oakeshott, said that if Mr Diamond had any shame, he would resign.
        Barclays has said its actions "fell well short of standards".
        In response, chief executive Bob Diamond and three other top executives at the bank are to give up their bonuses this year.
        Investigators say that Barclays' traders lied to make the 
bank look more secure during the financial crisis and, sometimes - 
working with traders at other banks - to make a profit.
  
Mortgage deals
 
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  Analysis
 Robert Peston Business editor
 
 
Barclays has admitted that a group of traders lied about what it was costing the bank to borrow.
        Now, why does this matter? 
        It matters because lots and lots of deals involving clients 
of Barclays used the interest rate into which Barclays was feeding this 
information, about its own borrowing costs, to determine the profit and 
loss on their own deals.
        It's quite hard to think of behaviour by a bank as shocking 
as this: not telling the truth about what it is costing you to borrow, 
that then becomes a benchmark for pricing other deals. 
        The statement from the US regulator, which levied a big chunk
 of the fine, talks about how Barclays was working with other banks to 
try to fix this interest rate.
        This of course implies that Barclays is simply the first bank
 to settle and we will see fines and punishments against some of the 
other big banks of the world.
  
 
  
 
Barclays' misconduct relates to 
the daily setting of the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor) and the 
Euro Interbank Offered Rate (Euribor).  
These are two of the most important interest rates in the 
global financial markets and directly influence the value of trillions 
of dollars of financial deals between banks and other institutions. 
        They can also affect lending rates to the public, for instance with some mortgage deals.
        It is not yet clear whether Barclays staff actually succeeded
 in manipulating the interest rates to the bank's advantage and 
therefore whether it had any impact on borrowers. 
        While the FSA said only that the Barclays employees had 
attempted to do so, the US Department of Justice said that on some 
occasions they did affect the Libor and Euribor rates.
        Former City minister Lord Myners told the BBC that the people
 at the top should take responsibility for "a complete cultural 
failure".
        He said the behaviour of Barclays staff was the worst he had seen.
        "This is the most corrosive failure of moral behaviour I have seen in a major UK financial institution in my career," he said.
        "I think fines and public criticism will not stop these 
behaviours. These behaviours will not stop until the people perpetrating
 it or responsible for overseeing them face the prospect of criminal 
charges and the prospect of going to jail."
  
 Continue reading the main story 
“Start Quote
The banks may be open to litigation if they are sued by their customers for being ripped off”
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 Neil MacKinnon
 VTB Capital
    
-    Libor rates: Who might have lost?
 
 
The former Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman, Lord Oakeshott said: "If Bob Diamond had a scintilla of shame he would resign."
"If Barclays' board had an inch of backbone between them they would sack him," he said.
        Andrew Tyrie, chairman of the Commons treasury committee, said it would summon Mr Diamond to account for what had happened.
        "Banks were clearly acting in concert. I fear it's not going 
to be the end of the story, that we are going to find that other banks 
have been involved," he said.
  
'Accepted culture'
       The fine imposed on Barclays is part of an international 
investigation into the setting of interbank rates between 2005 and 2009.
 
        Each day the British Bankers' Association (BBA) and the 
European Banking Association publish the the Libor and Euribor rates by 
taking an average of the estimated rates submitted to them by leading 
banks.
  
 
 
    
Tracey McDermott, of the FSA, says the misconduct is some of the most serious the regulator has ever seen
 
Between 2005 and 2008, the Barclays 
staff who submitted estimates of their own interbank lending rates were 
frequently lobbied by its derivatives traders to put in figures which 
would benefit their trading positions, in order to produce a profit for 
the bank.
        And between 2007 and 2009, during the height of the banking 
crisis, the staff put in artificially low figures, to avoid the 
suspicion that Barclays was under financial stress and thus having to 
borrow at noticeably higher rates than its competitors.
        The FSA pointed out that Barclays traders were quite open 
about their routine attempts to lobby their colleagues who submitted the
 bank's estimate of its borrowing costs to the BBA.
  
 Continue reading the main story 
“Start Quote
I owe you big time... I'm opening a bottle of Bollinger”
End Quote
 Exchange involving Barclays staff
 
   
It was particularly concerned because it appeared to be "accepted culture" among some staff. 
"Requests to Barclays' submitters were made verbally and a 
large amount of email and instant message evidence consisting of 
derivatives traders' requests also exists," the FSA said. 
        In one instance, a trader recounted a conversation in which he had "begged" the submitter to put in a lower Libor figure.
        "I'm like, dude, you're killing us," he said. His manager replied, "just tell him to... put it low".
        In turn, the staff submitting the data would respond to the traders' requests.
        "For you…anything," said one. "Done… for you big boy," said another.
        And: "I owe you big time... I'm opening a bottle of Bollinger."