‘Big questions’ over bank scandal
LONDON: Britian’s Prime Minister and Barclays’ shareholders have piled pressure on the bank’s Chief Executive Bob Diamond over attempts to manipulate lending rates.
In a scandal that has raised anger over how financial markets operate and is expected to engulf other banks, shares in Barclays tumbled as much as 18 percent at one point yesterday, wiping out £4.2 billion (R55bn) from its share price – the biggest one-day fall since 2009, according to Reuters data.
Diamond said Barclays’ traders had attempted to influence submissions for their own “benefit”, but there had also been a decision to improve market perception of Barclays by lowering the rate the bank submitted during the crisis.
“This is a scandal, it’s extremely serious… Barclays’ management has big questions to answer,” Prime Minister David Cameron said.
Opposition Labour leader Ed Miliband said criminal prosecutions should follow the investigation.
“People struggling to make ends meet will be outraged and disgusted by the way bankers have been walking off with millions of pounds for rigging the market,” he said. – Reuters CAIRO: Egypt’s president-elect Mohamed Mursi will be sworn in tomorrow before the Constitutional Court, the presidency announced.
Mursi “will take the oath before the court’s general assembly”, said a statement.
The president will then go to Cairo University to celebrate and address the nation.
Egypt’s president traditionally takes the oath in parliament, but the country’s top court has ordered the disbanding of the legislature.
Media reports said Mursi was consulting a cross-section of Egyptian society before appointing a premier and a cabinet. – Sapa-AFP WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama was standing outside the Oval Office when he saw the news on television just after 10am. Two networks, CNN and Fox News, were reporting the Supreme Court had struck down the centrepiece of his landmark health-care law.
Moments later, his face brightened. White House counsel Kathryn Ruemmler walked in and flashed him two thumbs- up. The court had upheld the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The TV networks had reported it wrong.
The White House lawyer’s sign trumped the cable networks’ reports for the president, who smiled and gave Ruemmler a hug.
His biggest domestic policy achievement, and with it a large part of his legacy, was still intact. – Reuters