Seven banks, including HSBC and Royal Bank of Scotland, are to be questioned in the US for alleged manipulation of the Libor inter-bank lending rate.
Barclays, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan and UBS have also received subpoenas from the attorneys general of New York and Connecticut.
Last month, Barclays was fined £290m by UK and US regulators for rigging Libor.
US regulators said they were investigating potential involvement by other banks in the Barclays scandal.
The investigation is predicated on the assumption that at least one other bank must have colluded with Barclays in any attempts to manipulate Libor rates, which are used as a reference to price trillions of dollars of financial products.
The US authorities will see whether supporting documents and testimony provide sufficient evidence for a criminal prosecution.
Criminal charges could also bolster the strength of civil lawsuits by investors seeking damages for losses due to any rate-rigging.
"This is the first time we're seeing a legal case that is trying to prove [collusion]. If they can prove it, then all the fees could amount to tens of millions of pounds," said Ralph Silva, a banking analyst at SRN.
UK investigation
A government-ordered review into Libor is currently being conducted by the managing director of the Financial Services Authority, Martin Wheatley.
Barclays was fined for trying to manipulate the Libor rates
The Wheatley review is examining how the Libor rate, the benchmark interest rate for trillions of financial contracts including some mortgages, is calculated and regulated.
The current Libor system is no longer a "viable option", Mr Wheatley said.
Libor is calculated using rates submitted by a group of leading banks who estimate how much it costs them to borrow in 10 currencies and 15 lengths of loans, ranging from overnight to 12 months.
There have been a series of allegations over the trading policies of banks in recent months.
Bank woes
On Tuesday, Standard Chartered agreed to pay $340m (£217m) to New York regulators to settle claims that it hid transactions worth $250bn with Iran.
Standard Chartered shares rallied on Wednesday after it agreed to settle the claims, after the institution had been threatened with having its US banking licence revoked.
Last week, New York's Department of Financial Services alleged that the US unit of the bank had illegally hidden 60,000 transactions with Iran worth $250bn over nearly a decade.
It accused the London-based bank of being a "rogue institution" for breaking US sanctions against Iran.
HSBC has also been accused of failing to prevent money laundering by the US Senate.
According to the Senate report, the US unit of HSBC carried out 28,000 undisclosed sensitive transactions between 2001 and 2007, an internal audit commissioned by the bank found. The vast majority of those transactions - worth $19.7bn - involved Iran.
As for Barclays, the Libor scandal led to the resignation of chief executive Bob Diamond as well as chairman Marcus Agius.
Last week, Sir David Walker was appointed as the new chairman.
He said he wants to review the way the bank operates and will begin his search for a new chief executive "within days".
Sir David is a senior banker who led the 2009 government inquiry into the rules governing how banks are run.
RBS has already admitted it is being investigated for fixing Libor.
It said: "RBS Group continues to receive requests from various regulators investigating the setting of Libor and other interest rates.
"We are co-operating with the investigations and are keeping relevant regulators informed."
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Korean Government Plan to Adopt New Benchmark Lending Rate
The latest news about benchmark lending rate is comes from the government of South Korea, the plan to implement and adopting new benchmark lending rate on money market segments. This plans is responding current growing demands on short term lending rates rigging of the certificate of Deposit rate, current benchmark lending rate by banking and brokerage firms.
Korean Financial Services Commission inform that the new benchmark lending rate will developed soon with the name of COFIX, stand for Cost of Funding Index. The COFIX will be weekly quote basis with the determination that comes from the average of the rates that submitted by the local banks (nine locals banks to contribute).
Based on their plans, the first quote of COFIX will be available and released by the first weeks of this November by Korea Federation of Banks, FSC said.
This first quote is expecting to inform various rate of lending including retail and corporate rate and also the credit that near to maturity date will be added too.
The FSC said it would gradually induce market players to shift to the COFIX for its reference rate, but the CD rate will be held valid for the time being since a bulk of financial products in South Korea, including mortgage loans and interest swaps, are tied to it.
The central bank's data show that loans linked to CD rates account for 30 percent of the overall loans extended by banks as of end-March, worth 323.8 trillion won. A total of 154.3 trillion won, or 14.3 percent worth of debts are tied to the COFIX.
Korean Financial Services Commission inform that the new benchmark lending rate will developed soon with the name of COFIX, stand for Cost of Funding Index. The COFIX will be weekly quote basis with the determination that comes from the average of the rates that submitted by the local banks (nine locals banks to contribute).
Based on their plans, the first quote of COFIX will be available and released by the first weeks of this November by Korea Federation of Banks, FSC said.
This first quote is expecting to inform various rate of lending including retail and corporate rate and also the credit that near to maturity date will be added too.
The FSC said it would gradually induce market players to shift to the COFIX for its reference rate, but the CD rate will be held valid for the time being since a bulk of financial products in South Korea, including mortgage loans and interest swaps, are tied to it.
The central bank's data show that loans linked to CD rates account for 30 percent of the overall loans extended by banks as of end-March, worth 323.8 trillion won. A total of 154.3 trillion won, or 14.3 percent worth of debts are tied to the COFIX.
Friday, August 3, 2012
Benchmark Lending Group - Who Behind it
About Benchmark Lending Group, Inc.
For over a decade, Benchmark Lending has been helping home buyers and owners realize their dreams. As a primary lending institution, Benchmark is uniquely positioned to assist both refinancing and new mortgage customers. We take the time to understand you and your financial goals. We tailor loans that take into account your cash flow, payment timeframe, equity plans and investment opportunities. You will get a loan that won't break your budget and provides you the flexibility and resources to get the most out of your property investments.
Ben Ray, one of Benchmark's top loan officers, is featured in the article which outlines the high-level of customer service that he and all employees at Benchmark provide. "When he books loans, he arranges for appraisers to show-up within a day or two,รข€ said the Wall Street Journal. He schedules notaries to make house calls for the closing, so customers don't need to cool their heels in a title-company office. His goal is to make borrowing as easy and painless as ordering a pizza."
George Anders, the Wall Street Journal news editor who wrote the article, interviewed a number of Benchmark's employees, including Senior Loan Officer Ben Ray; Processing Manager Jodi Ehrlicher; Vice President of Sales Lance Diener and Founder/CEO Barney Aldridge, who is also the star of Benchmark's radio commercials. Diener, who has been in the mortgage industry for more than a decade considers working at a mortgage company to be a privilege because of the opportunity to help people everyday. This is all about people improving the quality of their lives, Diener told the Wall Street Journal. If you can save $800 a month on you mortgage payment, just imagine the possibilities.
The article explains some of the non-traditional loan programs that people can use to lower their monthly mortgage payments. [Callers] may be hard-pressed to cope with traditional mortgages that require principal repayments every month, said the Wall Street Journal. But they can handle interest-only payments. If even that amount seems too steep, Benchmark offers something called the Freedom Loan.
We are all really excited about the publication of the Benchmark article in the Wall Street Journal, said Aldridge. For years I've been telling people over the radio about how we are nice people and this article really emphasizes our philosophy. I know that I have an awesome team at Benchmark, but now everyone else knows, too. They all work really hard and it's great that they are getting this level of recognition.
For over a decade, Benchmark Lending has been helping home buyers and owners realize their dreams. As a primary lending institution, Benchmark is uniquely positioned to assist both refinancing and new mortgage customers. We take the time to understand you and your financial goals. We tailor loans that take into account your cash flow, payment timeframe, equity plans and investment opportunities. You will get a loan that won't break your budget and provides you the flexibility and resources to get the most out of your property investments.
Ben Ray, one of Benchmark's top loan officers, is featured in the article which outlines the high-level of customer service that he and all employees at Benchmark provide. "When he books loans, he arranges for appraisers to show-up within a day or two,รข€ said the Wall Street Journal. He schedules notaries to make house calls for the closing, so customers don't need to cool their heels in a title-company office. His goal is to make borrowing as easy and painless as ordering a pizza."
George Anders, the Wall Street Journal news editor who wrote the article, interviewed a number of Benchmark's employees, including Senior Loan Officer Ben Ray; Processing Manager Jodi Ehrlicher; Vice President of Sales Lance Diener and Founder/CEO Barney Aldridge, who is also the star of Benchmark's radio commercials. Diener, who has been in the mortgage industry for more than a decade considers working at a mortgage company to be a privilege because of the opportunity to help people everyday. This is all about people improving the quality of their lives, Diener told the Wall Street Journal. If you can save $800 a month on you mortgage payment, just imagine the possibilities.
The article explains some of the non-traditional loan programs that people can use to lower their monthly mortgage payments. [Callers] may be hard-pressed to cope with traditional mortgages that require principal repayments every month, said the Wall Street Journal. But they can handle interest-only payments. If even that amount seems too steep, Benchmark offers something called the Freedom Loan.
We are all really excited about the publication of the Benchmark article in the Wall Street Journal, said Aldridge. For years I've been telling people over the radio about how we are nice people and this article really emphasizes our philosophy. I know that I have an awesome team at Benchmark, but now everyone else knows, too. They all work really hard and it's great that they are getting this level of recognition.
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
What is Benchmark Lending
First time hear about Benchmark Lending, we would thing that it is the terms that used by bank to compare several lending products. The basic things on benchmark lending is tries knowing the difference of several lending or loans products that suit to the customers needs and reliability.
Banks mostly used the benchmark to give the multiple choice to its customers, so they can give the best rate and the best condition applied to most of their clients. This strategy is to keep the bank with the most completed services in banking industries.
Basically, benchmark landing is loans products that available on the market, such as student loans, mortgage loans, personal loans, car loans and others. The banks then giving the compare of its products, starting from the features, benefits, cost and others component to give the client or customers clear and useful information related to their lending or loans need.
Meaning of Benchmark Lending
But, the true meaning of the benchmark lending is the rate that used by banks or financial institution to determine the loans rate that would be charged to their customers. The example of the benchmark lending is the LIBOR (London Inter Bank Offered Rate) it is the rate that used by the banks in London to loan from banks with in LIBOR members. In India there is MIBOR (Mumbai Inter Bank Offered Rate), has the same principles with the LIBOR, which the members are the banks that operated in India.
Determining Benchmark Lending
To Determine the benchmark lending, there are complicated and integrated technique to used, mostly its determine by measuring several factors in the banking or financial markets, such as inflation rate, economy, depo rate, deflation, money supply, exchange rates and others factors. Those factors then is calculated based on certain formulas which is in the ends will be represent the true lending rates that affordable for the markets.
Banks mostly used the benchmark to give the multiple choice to its customers, so they can give the best rate and the best condition applied to most of their clients. This strategy is to keep the bank with the most completed services in banking industries.
Basically, benchmark landing is loans products that available on the market, such as student loans, mortgage loans, personal loans, car loans and others. The banks then giving the compare of its products, starting from the features, benefits, cost and others component to give the client or customers clear and useful information related to their lending or loans need.
Meaning of Benchmark Lending
But, the true meaning of the benchmark lending is the rate that used by banks or financial institution to determine the loans rate that would be charged to their customers. The example of the benchmark lending is the LIBOR (London Inter Bank Offered Rate) it is the rate that used by the banks in London to loan from banks with in LIBOR members. In India there is MIBOR (Mumbai Inter Bank Offered Rate), has the same principles with the LIBOR, which the members are the banks that operated in India.
Determining Benchmark Lending
To Determine the benchmark lending, there are complicated and integrated technique to used, mostly its determine by measuring several factors in the banking or financial markets, such as inflation rate, economy, depo rate, deflation, money supply, exchange rates and others factors. Those factors then is calculated based on certain formulas which is in the ends will be represent the true lending rates that affordable for the markets.
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