Joshua Gallu of Bloomberg reports here that many of the worlds benchmarks could be subject to the same type of manipulation seen with LIBOR. How?:
Fewer than half of the benchmark interest rates surveyed in the U.S., Europe and Asia were based on actual transactions, according to a confidential International Organization of Securities Commissions discussion paper obtained by Bloomberg News. Instead, the rates were calculated by methodologies that were unclear, not transparent and only rarely subject to specific regulatory standards or obligations, the group said.
I think most people would be shocked to discover that less than half the interest rate indexes were based on transactions. We have previously commented on this here.
The press release by the industry group IOSCO can be found here.
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