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THE DIFFERENCE between Libor and Dibor tells us why Ireland is failing.
London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor) is an interest rate which British banks charge when they lend each other money. Banks recalculate it every day under precise rules; it is important because thousands of major commercial loans have their interest rates set by reference to Libor.
Barclays, it appears, were supplying false information for the Libor calculation, to manipulate it up or down to suit their exposure to the market. Their customers would then be contracted to pay higher (or be paid lower) interest rates than they should have been. The contracts would have been enforced correctly, but based on bad external data.
Probes began after media speculation in 2008 noting that the Libor interest rate did not appear to reflect market conditions. While nobody has yet been arrested, much less charged or convicted, following intense investigations Barclays Bank have admitted misconduct and paid hundreds of millions in euro in penalties to authorities in Britain and the US.
Within days Barclays chief executive Bob Diamond resigned. Bank chairman Marcus Agius resigned from both Barclays the British Bankers Association. Britain’s Serious Fraud Office is considering criminal charges. UK Prime Minister David Cameron announced a parliamentary review of the banking sector, led by the chairman of the powerful Treasury Committee. Investigations are beginning into whether other UK banks have been up to similar practices.
If Barclay’s Libor swindle operation was a sophisticated cat-burglar in the night, Anglo Irish Bank seems to have been a daylight smash-and-grab.
The equivalent Dublin Interbank Offered Rate (Dibor) was used by Irish banks, including Anglo, to set interest rates for many of their business customers.
In 2010, Anglo chief exec Mike Aynsley confirmed that, rather than undertaking sophisticated manoeuvres to manipulate the Dibor to its advantage, Anglo simply lied. Day after day, with client after client, Anglo simply overstated the correct interest rate by a margin of one-quarter to one-half of a percentage point. The false rates may have accounted for 10 per cent of Anglo profits, for up to a decade.
Dibor is publicly-available information, so they were betting that nobody would notice that the rates they were being charged were wrong. For nearly 15 years, it seems, nobody did.
While the UK and US corporate justice systems are far from ideal, they are at least imposing heavy fines; senior people are losing their jobs, and some may yet lose their liberty. In Ireland, despite clear indications fraud, nobody has been arrested, no investigations have been started, nobody has been appointed to find the guilty.
And nobody has been tasked with making sure it never happens again. Which is why it will happen again.
Knowledge of this fraud has been in the public domain for nearly two years, although it was very thinly reported – the word ‘Dibor’ was not mentioned even once in Irish mainstream news sources in relation to this scandal. Nobody is noticing still. Nobody is noticing, nobody is being prosecuted, and nothing is changing. That is why Ireland is failing.
William Campbell is the author of Here’s How, Creative Solutions for Ireland’s Economic and Social Problems.
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Sinn Fein are not so quick to answer questions about ink cartridges themselves
People in glasshouses can’t throw stones or petrol bombs or whatever SF are into nowadays
What’s your point? They are elected representatives and are entitled to ask what they want. The war is over, get over it!
Very rich for Sinn Fein to be taking the moral high ground on issues of justice.
God forbid the opposition asks a few questions :O
67 is hardly a few
Don’t think that’s the point – yet another example of fine Gael acting in a condescending dismissive manner – did u see phil hogan last night smirking and saying it was typically Irish that we were waiting until the last minute to pay the household charge – this gov is not living in the reall world. To dismiss Sinn Fein like the above posters have done due to their history is petty and unproductive. Open your eyes people.
The househd tax like it or not is now a law of the land. Sinn however continue with their historic indifference to the laws of the land. They are not calling for a boycott of council tax on the north though…
Agree. Same old smart Alec Greek chorus whenever SF raises an issue. Idiots.
I am dismissing Jonathan and Sinn fein due to the fact of something a friend of mine witnessed in the not so distant past. So spare me the tags please.
I agree Brian. Regardless of the content and actual point of the article, we have the typical snipes from FG/FFers. The beginning point from their posts is to patronise/put down/dismiss and blatantly bad mouth SF! Why because it’s easy to post the same crappy comments over and over again to make themselves feel superior. Typical party tactics.
On a side note, a comment about the article. The point I would like to raise is that shatter deems these request unworthy to answer, of course the prison system falls under his umbrella. His power has gone to his head since he won one over in the judges! I would expect him to answer if FF had asked! Why not SF!
I thought Jonathan and his crew would know plenty about the justice system at this stage?
Is a Sinn Fein Justice spokesperson not a contradiction of itself?
Sinn fein now look like a well resourced party judging by the quality and volume of questions being submitted. A big change coming in the make up of the next fail on the cards?
dail not fail. Danny predictive text
A ‘fraudulant’ slip perhaps?
Steve, I am sure you meant Freud rather than Fraud (at least I hope you did) Even my correction got invaded by the predective text! The joys of rushing for a bus!
I remember someone in the last Dail saying asking questions of the government was like playing handball against a haystack….
Also, whilst I’m not a Sinn Fein supporter, they are democratically elected representatives, and are entitled to answers to their questions as much as any other representatives.
Whilst not a Sinn Fein supporter I welcome the opposition, Fianna Fail are morally bankrupt, Labour have become the new Green Party and the Independents have no clout. What is the point in letting Sinn Fein run in elections if their past is the only response they are given to sometime valid points. It’s quite like Fine Gaels’ response on every issue, ‘well that was Fianna Fail’s’ fault’, we are where we are, now do some fecking work for your pensions!
so if 67 citizens of this country wrote to the ministers dept and each asked one question it “would require the allocation and expenditure of a disproportionate and inordinate amount of staff time and effort”…..yep, sounds like the dik tat we have voted in
This would take up a ridiculous amount of time. Fair eneough if they were questions which just required a simple answer.
for the simple citizens eh James???????………
So it should only be simple questions asked in the Dáil rathrt than ones that are about exposing the rot, waste and corruption in this state. Problem is that not enough questions were asked over the last 50 years.
You can ask the “What is you favourite member of One Direction, Alan?” questions if you like, but the Minister is there to work.
Shatter’s response basically says “I can’t be arsed, so feck off would ya?”
While I do think that Shatters response was reasonable, there is a point around the amount of resources used in depts preparing answers to parlimentary q’s. There has to be a better more efficient model that doesnt use so many civil servants at enourmous cost.
His justification for submitting so many questions doesn’t really stack up. It looks like a political stunt, to be honest.
It sounds a bit like someone got his homework in at the last minute.
Is there a list of the questions somewhere that we can read?
Found it
Talk about drowning the Dept in paper!
Does he really need to ask so many questions? Wouldn’t a bit more thought and editing enable him to ask less but more useful questions? The only thing most citizens want to know about the prison service is why there aren’t more places within it to hold prisoners.
As Stephen Donnelly pointed out, this Govt. have a major problem with being held accountable.
It was ever thus with FG, the get in and the arrogance comes out and the piss off the electorate and they are out again after one term. After 80 years of this, is it not time to look in the mirror and ask “is is me?”.
I can’t believe a shinner is questioning anybody’s accountability
have your say