"Zombanakis and his team came up with a solution: charging borrowers an interest rate recalculated every few months and funding the loan with a series of rolling deposits. The formula was simple. The banks in the syndicate would report their funding costs just before a loan-rollover date. The weighted average, rounded to the nearest eighth of a percentage point plus a spread for profit, became the price of the loan for the next period. Zombanakis called it the London interbank offered rate."
An excerpt from Gavin Finch and Liam Vaughan's forthcoming Libor scandal book "The Fix" describing the 1969 invention of Libor by Manufacturers Hanover banker Minos Zombanakis as a way o make floating-rate syndicated loans
Armed and emboldened with an internal analytics platform and powerful data mining tools, the SEC is aggressively analyzing "big data" to first identify suspicious insider trading patterns (Nov 29)
Dismal market forecast could be major impetus; institutional investors say they
may consider actively managed investing, particularly for long-term strategies (Nov 28)
SEC: The national securities exchanges aren't immune from fraud suits by investors claiming they were bilked out of millions because the markets favored high-speed traders (Nov 28)
Financial regulations subject to the Congressional Review Act
Read more in the INVESTORS 'Rules & Regs' on Tuesday, Dec 8th and the INVESTORS 'Financial Services Update' on Wednesday, Dec 9th
The Financial CHOICE Act,
approved in September by the House Financial Services Committee, could
serve as a template for revamping the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, limiting "too-big-to-fail" designations and blocking the Labor Department's fiduciary rule for retirement investment advice. The new administration and Congress could also undo "midnight rules" enacted in the final months of the current administration.
Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Farm Credit Administration, and the Federal Housing Finance Agency
(Nov 28) The Securities and Exchange Commission voted 3-0 for a six-month extension of the Equity Market Structure Advisory Committee. Originally, the group's charter was set to expire in February. The markets advisory panel - which advises the SEC on the stock market but isn't empowered to actually create rules - will keep its current members.
The man who invented the world's most important number
When Minos Zombanakis devised Libor - the London interbank offered rate - half a century ago, he had no way of knowing it would star in one of history's greatest financial scandals
Essential Politics: The conversation returns to 'rigged' elections
What seemed like a sleepy holiday weekend ended up feeling a lot like the campaign by the time it clanged to a conclusion, with President-elect Donald Trump suggesting Hillary Clinton only won the popular vote thanks to people casting ballots illegally in states including California
