‘Smoking Gun’ Recording Entangles Bank of England in Libor Rigging Scandal

‘A secret recording implicating the Bank of England in the Libor rigging scandal has been uncovered, the first potential “smoking gun” evidence of the central bank’s long-suspected role in compelling UK commercial banks to artificially drive down their lending rates during the financial crisis.
Libor — the London Interbank Offered Rate — tracks how much it costs banks to borrow money from each other, heavily influencing the cost of mortgages and other loans for regular customers. Sometimes called “the world’s most important number,” prior to the scandal, banks had dedicated members of staff — Libor submitters — who would calculate every day how much it cost the bank to borrow money, and submit the figures to the British Bankers’ Association (BBA).
The BBA would then set the overall Libor rate according to the average of all banks’ aggregate borrowing costs.’

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