Today, in embarrassing
Reuters reports that RBS faces fines of up to $627 million for rigging the London Interbank Offering Rate (Libor), a scandal that came to light last summer and hit banks around the world. RBS' fine would be the second largest in the investigation, and Sky News reports that the bank could face harsh criminal charges as well.
One look at the instant messages the FSA released this morning and you can understand why regulators are taking this issue so seriously. The FSA says that even when they knew they were being investigated, RBS employees continued manipulating the Libor for their benefit.
And they seemed pretty happy doing it. In fact, they managed to throw out some one-liners that are sure to go down in Wall Street instant message history (along with "sh---y deal", and what not).
We'll let you know when we see more of these gems from the FSA's report.