Barclays To Fed in 2008: 'We Know That We’re Not Posting, Um, An Honest Libor'

Barclays Plc told U.S. regulators as early as April 2008 that it was making artificially low London interbank offered rate submissions to avoid the perception that the British bank was struggling to fund itself.

Bloomberg reports that a Barclays employee admitted in a phone call to an analyst at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York: 'We know that we’re not posting, um, an honest Libor....We just fit in with the rest of the crowd, if you like'.

The employee said Barclays had given accurate Libor submissions before the publication of an article in Britain’s Financial Times, which charted 'our Libor contributions and comparing it with other banks and inferring that this meant that we had a problem raising cash in the interbank market'. Barclays spokeswoman Phillippa-Jane Vermoter declined to comment.

Regulators are under pressure from lawmakers to explain to what extent they were aware banks were lowballing their submissions to Libor during the credit crisis. Barclays agreed to pay a record $452m fine last month for trying to manipulate the benchmark for more than $500 trillion of securities.

Hit the link below to access the complete Bloomberg article:

Barclays Told New York Fed It Low-Balled Libor, Transcript Shows

In the meantime, The Daily Telegraph reports that Marcus Agius and Sir Mike Rake will this week meet investors in a bid to contain the fall-out from the Libor scandal as Barclays faces further embarrassment from Jerry Del Missier’s evidence to MPs.

Barclays’ Chairman and Deputy Chairman will travel to shareholders and investors groups to explain their strategy for stemming the crisis that has ripped through the bank and its boardroom. The pair are expected to use the meetings to sound out investors on the plan to elevate Sir Mike to chairman so he can swiftly start looking for a new CEO and fill the management vacuum at the top of the bank.