1. What cases? Who's involved?
1.1. LIBOR
1.1.1. The London Inter Bank Overnight Rate (LIBOR) is a key interest rate that is used as a benchmark in millions of financial contracts. And this benchmark was being fiddled to traders' advantage. The rate is set by banks announcing what interest rate they can borrow at. The trading desks of banks were simply asking those reporting their lending rates to lie in whatever direction suited them.
1.1.1.1. Instant messaging exchanges released as part of the RBS probe give a flavour of the manipulation: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2013/feb/06/rbs-libor-fixing-transcripts-exchanges "Swiss Franc Trader: [Primary Submitter] pls can we get super high 3m[,] super low 6m Swiss Franc Trader: PRETTY PLEASE! Primary Submitter: 41 & 51 Swiss Franc Trader: if u did that[,] i would lvoe [sic] u forever Primary Submitter: 41 & 55 then … Swiss Franc Trader: if u did that i would come over there and make love to you[,] your choice"
1.1.2. US regulators and UK FSA
1.1.3. Barclays
1.1.3.1. $460m paid
1.1.4. RBS
1.1.4.1. $615m paid
1.1.5. UBS
1.1.5.1. $1.5bl paid
1.1.6. alleged
1.1.6.1. Citigroup(US:C) , J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (US:JPM) , Deutsche Bank (US:DB) and ICAP (UK:IAP)
1.2. Ratings agencies
1.2.1. Department of Justice
1.2.2. S&P
1.2.2.1. Parent company, McGraw Hill, has refused a $1bl out-of-court settlement
1.2.3. The sub-prime crisis - the crisis which sparked everything off - involved banks selling mortgages to risky customers and then repackaging those mortgages in complicated ways that made them look safer. Crucial to that operate were the ratings agencies who are paid by the banks to offer and independent assessment of the risks associated to any financial product dreamed up by the banks. The Department of Justice in the USA is going after the largest, Standards and Poors, claiming that they weren't quite independent enough in their activities.
1.2.3.1. The messages released by the DoJ give a flavour of what was going on: Analyst 1: btw that deal is ridiculous Analyst 2: I know right…model def does not capture half of the…risk Analyst 1: We should not be rating it. Analyst 2: we rate every deal…it could be structured by cows and we would rate it. Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/johncassidy/2013/02/burning-down-the-house-of-s-p.html#ixzz2KhG0lWKU
1.3. PPI misselling
1.3.1. £12bn total
1.3.2. Barclays
1.3.3. Lloyds
1.3.4. HBOS
1.3.5. Private individuals were offered debt and then asked to insure against not being able to pay in case of illness or accident. The insurance cost was often hugely inflated. The banks made so more money selling insurance than loans that staff were given special bonuses to sell the bundles.
1.4. Small business interest rate swaps
1.4.1. £ To be determined
1.4.2. RBS
1.4.3. Lloyds
1.4.4. Barclays
1.4.5. HSBC
1.4.6. Small businesses were sold complicated hedging products that insured them against rises in interest rates - but did not allow them to benefit from falls in interest rates. The products were often opaque and intended for extremely sophisticated buyers, not for corner butchers and new agents.
1.5. Money laundering
1.5.1. HSBC
1.5.1.1. Through its Wakovia subsidiary in the USA, HSBC was caught red-handed laundering the cash of Mexican drug traffickers
1.6. Sanctions busting
1.6.1. Standard Charter
1.6.1.1. The bank falsified documents to be able to continue to trade with Iran in the face of US sanctions