Metals, Currency Rigging Worse Than Libor, Bafin’s Koenig Says

[jakeXT]

Source: Bloomberg News

Germany’s top financial regulator said possible manipulation of currency rates and prices for precious metals is worse than the Libor-rigging scandal, which has already led to fines of about $6 billion.

The allegations about the currency and precious metals markets are “particularly serious, because such reference values are based -- unlike Libor and Euribor -- typically on transactions in liquid markets and not on estimates of the banks,” Elke Koenig, the president of Bafin, said in a speech in Frankfurt yesterday.

Koenig is the first global finance regulator to comment publicly on the investigations as probes into the London interbank offered rate, or Libor, expand into other benchmarks. Joaquin Almunia, the European Union’s antitrust chief, said this week that its preliminary probe into possible foreign-exchange manipulation covers similar practices as in the regulator’s probe into Libor-rigging.

Bonn-based Bafin said earlier this week it is investigating currency trading, joining regulators in the U.K., U.S. and Switzerland, who are examining whether traders at the world’s largest banks colluded to manipulate the WM/Reuters rates, used by money managers to determine the value of holdings in different currencies.

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-16/metals-currency-rigging-worse-than-libor-bafin-s-koenig-says.html

[timothywcrane]

1. What does Beijing think?

Remember when all we could talk about was how evil China was for "rigging" their own currency? Now we see that there may have been worldwide conspiracy to rig not only our own but other's? This makes the West look even worse. To say it is worse than the Libor rigging makes it even more untenable.

[Ikonoklast]

6. When it comes to metals markets manipulation, China has a front-row seat.

They are no better than all the other thieves.

[LuvNewcastle]

2. I need to see what Max Keiser says about this. He explains all this shit so

someone like me can understand it. I wish Max had his own network show so he can explain all this financial news to regular people every day. The only 'explanation' most poor bastards get is CNBC, and viewing that will make sure they stay confused and ignorant about these matters.

[Enthusiast]

3. But prosecuting currency manipulators could damage the economy.

And who would want to do that?

[maindawg]

4. well if gold is not worth 3200 dollars an ounce

Then we are all screwed.

[bemildred]

5. All markets are rigged, some more than others, but all are manipulated.

I mean think about it, there are tens of thousands of reasonably smart people whose job is trying to figure out how to manipulate the markets to make the big bucks.