LIEBOR - The Essential Truth

There is much hoopla going on in the media about this afternoon's bunfight at the Treasury Select Committee hearing, where Bob Diamond will be the guest star.

All attention and focus (thanks to deft media manipulation by Barclays) is on the alleged phone call from Paul Tucker (Deputy Governor of The Bank of England) on 29 October 2008:

"Bob Diamond received a call from Paul Tucker, the Deputy Governor of the Bank of England. The substance of that call was captured by Bob Diamond via a note prepared at the time. A copy of that note is appended to this document; it was circulated to John Varley, then Barclays Chief Executive, and Jerry del Missier, then President of Barclays Capital.

Subsequent to the call, Bob Diamond relayed the contents of the conversation to Jerry del Missier. Bob Diamond did not believe he received an instruction from Paul Tucker or that he gave an instruction to Jerry del Missier. However Jerry del Missier concluded that an instruction had been passed down from the Bank of England not to keep LIBORs so high and he therefore passed down a direction to that effect to the submitters ."

This is all very well, and has given Barclays the veneer of an "excuse"; wherein it can imply that it was asked to fiddle the rates. It has also given the Tories an opportunity to unleash the hounds, and castigate various Labour ministers of the day.

However, let us not forget the essential truth, Barclays were fiddling the LIBOR rates long before the alleged phone call took place.

For why?

To make a profit for their own greedy ends, not to save the country or the bank from financial ruin.

Let us not forget that!