DAILY TELEGRAPH
HSBC'S 'PERVASIVELY POLLUTED' CULTURE ALLOWED $7BN MEXICAN DRUG MONEY INTO BANK
Reuters
A "pervasively polluted" culture at HSBC allowed the bank to act as financier to clients seeking to route shadowy funds from the world's most dangerous and secretive corners, including Mexico, Iran, the Cayman Islands, Saudi Arabia and Syria, according to a scathing US Senate report.
FINANCIAL TIMES
LIBOR TESTIMONY PUTS DIAMOND UNDER FIRE
By Patrick Jenkins and Brooke Masters
Bob Diamond, ex-chief executive of Barclays, suffered another bruising on Monday, as regulators lambasted his “misleading” behaviour, and his former chief operating officer directly contradicted his account of the Libor-rigging scandal. Laying bare the extent of Mr Diamond’s conflict with regulators in recent months, Andrew Bailey, the chief banking regulator of the Financial Services Authority, told a British parliamentary committee that the US banker’s earlier testimony to MPs had been “highly selective”. “I don’t think what Mr Diamond said [to MPs] in any way reflects the severity of the issue … of the point we were making,” Mr Bailey said.
CITY AM
FSA: BARCLAYS WAS GAMING US
By James Waterson
Del Missier says he believes Bob Diamond told him to rig rates Head of watchdog gave clear message Barclays boss must go Regulator says it is investigating seven banks in Libor probe Claims that Barclays compliance team knew of market manipulation REGULATORS claimed last night that they felt “gamed” by Barclays as former executive Jerry del Missier told MPs that Bob Diamond had instructed him to lower the bank’s Libor rate submissions.
GUARDIAN
BARCLAYS BOSS TOLD ME TO CHANGE LIBOR, SAYS BANKER
By Jill Treanor, city editor
A former senior Barclays executive has justified his decision to order his staff to manipulate interest rates during the 2008 banking crisis because he believed he was acting on the instruction of the Bank of England. Jerry del Missier also spread the blame throughout the bank by revealing that its compliance department had been told about the instruction to reduce the Libor level, and that no action was taken.
THE SUN
BARCLAYS RUNS DOWN OLD LADY
By Steve Hawkes, Business Editor
Former Barclays boss Jerry del Missier last night insisted the BANK OF ENGLAND urged them to fix the Libor interest rate. Mr Missier told MPs former chief exec Bob Diamond relayed a message that Barclays had been asked to cut the figure.The conversation was at the height of the banking crisis in October 2008. Asked if the message was delivered by Mr Diamond, Mr del Missier said: “Yes, it was.”
….OTHER NEWS ….
DAILY TELEGRAPH
CENSUS 2011: POPULATION SURGES BY 3.7 MILLION IN A DECADE
By John Bingham, Social Affairs Editor
The population of England and Wales has undergone its biggest surge since records began after a decade of mass immigration and a baby boom, according to the 2011 census. Figures published by the Office for National Statistics show that the population of England and Wales grew by 7.1 per cent to 56.1 million, twice the rate recorded in the previous decade.
GUARDIAN
IMF CUTS GLOBAL GROWTH FORECAST WITH WARNING FOR US AND EUROPE TO ACT
By Dominic Rushe and Phillip Inman
The International Monetary Fund has cut its forecast for global growth to the lowest level since 2009, when the world was first emerging from the great recession. The IMF said Monday it expects the world economy to grow 3.5% this year, 0.1 percentage points lower than its forecast three months ago, and warned that a sharper downturn was possible if policymakers in Europe and the US fail to act.
DAILY MAIL
UK SUFFERS BIGGEST IMF GROWTH FORECAST DOWNGRADE OF ANY ADVANCED ECONOMY
By Ed Monk and This Is Money Reporters
The UK economy will barely grow at all this year and will progress far below previous estimates next year, according to new forecasts from the International Monetary Fund. In further embarrassment for Britain, the downgrades to UK GDP were the largest among all advanced economies for this year, and second only to Spain for next year.
DAILY EXPRESS
NEW EUROZONE FEARS TAKE STERLING HIGHER
By David Shand
THE pound extended its near-four-year high against the euro yesterday as the eurozone crisis deepened amid worries over bailout funding for the region’s struggling economies and banks. Sterling climbed to E1.275, its highest since October 2008, while the European single currency was at its lowest for more than two years against the US dollar, falling as low as $1.217.
