Monday, July 23, 2012

Municipalities, Others, May Have Lost Tens Of Billions Of Dollars On LIBOR-Tied Bonds

So says this story from The Fiscal Times:


As the world has learned in recent months, the banks behind Libor have been reporting incorrect lower rates to make their finances appear more stable. ...

The revelations sparked a major class action lawsuit filed earlier this year by the city of Baltimore, which entered into dozens of swap-based municipal bond contracts in the past decade that were tied to Libor. The suit accused more than a dozen financial institutions involved in setting Libor rates of engaging in a systematic conspiracy that resulted in “hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars in ill-gotten gains.”

“Just about every jurisdiction in the U.S. was affected,” said Michael Hausfeld, one of the attorneys representing Baltimore. “It affected hedge funds, money market investors, institutional investors. The total losses could exceed tens of billions of dollars.”