The ‘free markets’ are permeated by frauds, many of them perpetrated by the Banks, which affect the price of transactions in liquid markets.  Â
What a surprise.
Did someone forget to offer Frau Koenig a post-government job in Private Equity?
In fairness, I can definitely see this managed as a ‘limited hang out’ public relations operation with some fines put forward for front running the London fix, but the great bulk of the abusive price rigging in the futures markets left untouched for confidence and the ‘good of the system.’
I think the real issue will be the unfolding inventory scandals if they lose control of the great shell game.
Bloomberg
Metals, Currency Rigging Worse Than Libor, Bafin Chief SaysÂ
By Karin Matussek and Oliver SuessÂ
Jan 16, 2014 2:04 PM ETÂGermany’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.Â
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 today.Â
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 yesterday that its preliminary probe into possible foreign-exchange manipulation covers similar practices as in the regulator’s probe into Libor-rigging…Â
Bafin interviewed employees of Deutsche Bank AG as part of a probe of potential manipulation of gold and silver prices, a person with knowledge of the matter has said in December. The U.K. finance regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority, is also reviewing gold benchmarks as part of its wider investigation into how rates are set…
Read the original article here.
