Call for banks and regulators to answer questions on Libor scandal

Rochdale Euro MP, Arlene McCarthy, Vice Chair of the European Parliament’s Economic and Monetary committee, who is leading the EU's review of the market abuse rules, today calls for a full parliamentary hearing of the economic and monetary committee into interest rate rigging scandal.

Arlene said: "Having met this week with US regulators who have lead investigations into the interest rate rigging, the more information that comes to light on the extent and gravity of this scandal the more urgent it is for the ECON committee to call in the banks and regulators to answer for their failures and manipulation.

"We have moved swiftly to take action by amending the current market abuse rules widening the scope to cover key interest rates such as Libor and Euribor and other systemically important benchmarks and indices.

"The culture of the banking industry has not changed and this culture was aided and abetted by regulatory failures.

"We need to call the banks and regulators to come before our committee. It is important that we learn the lessons from this crisis and ensure we have a robust legal and regulatory framework to prevent future manipulation or abuse and its potentially devastating consequences for the European and Global economy and the continued crisis of confidence in banks and financial markets."