What Libor ? It’s Antitrust !
The last count was over 60 traders of various products, predominantly NDFs and SGD, being suspended, subsequently fired, allowed to resign, reinstated back in their former roles or into a new role.
People stopped counting. Along the way, some other traders left, traders like myself, who were outside the scandal radar.
Was it all just about the fixing ?
It seems not. Several traders were involved in deal price fixing, apparently but unverified. It had nothing to do with the daily published SOR or Libor rates, for that matter. It was a case of antitrust and rigging the rates of a customer deal during the pricing window. Unfortunate indeed.
What did the authorities do ?
Nothing.
What happens to the markets now that there is a void of traders and we have banks shutting down trading operations ? What happens when we have a powerful consortium of traders and their powerful broker left to run the market now ? Or hedge funds too ? Traders who are loyal to their friends and family in other banks and not to their banks ? Traders who are wise to communicate through Whatsapp, a private and proprietary network, and other social communication networks instead of Bloomberg chats and SMS’es?
Nothing.
Nothing has changed.
Perhaps retrospective action is not as effective as a proactive approach.
Just a thought and my humble opinion and, in no way intended to malign or slander or even accuse anyone of any wrongdoing.
@ Tradehaven, it seems strange that the fallout from the supposed LIBOR scandal is felt more in Singapore rather than London, where it has morphed into supposed SGD SOR to NDF ‘scandals’ or more appropriately called ‘accusations’. There are more traders and professionals in Singapore that are negatively affected by mere association by the degree of separation from the supposed pepertrator(s) …. with banks / financial institutions summarily firing them or getting them to resign. In Singapore, perhaps because of the simplicity in firing or demanding an employee to resign, regardless of the level of seniority, this perhaps had also been an efficient and convenient exercise in culling the chaps that whoever up there in those organisations wanted to remove. Interestingly, a lot of ”replacement” professionals taking over those departed are either from London or Mumbai or of certain nationalities. In fact, you hardly see any interns or junior hires that are non-Indians or non-Caucasians right to the senior people. It is the end of an era for any aspiring Asians from Malaysia, Hong Kong, Singapore or pretty much any other Asian nationality besides Indian to start a career in investment banking or in the dealing room as there are just no opportunities given to you anymore, is the complaint I am hearing.
Are you suggesting that they start investigating chats in different languages so as not to disadvantage the Singapore Singlish speaker ?
If you worked in a Japanese bank would you be surprised to see lots of Japanese bankers? Or in a Singaporean back with a trading floor in KL, would it be a surprise to see a few Singaporeans? And are you sure there are caucasion interns working in Singapore, apart from maybe one or two? And do you serioulsy think the “Libor investigation” In Singapore was really used by senior management to ethnically cleanse the workforce? I mean, do you honestly think that?
Of course not.
But I will never work with a Singaporean again if I can help the living daylights in me.
Don’t ask me why.
But counter intuitively, Singapore would have MORE Singaporean traders and that is why the stats have come up as such. I am quite sure it is not a deliberate attempt to cleanse anything.
It just so happens that Europe and the rest of the world has high youth unemployment perhaps and some really great talented people are willing to work here. (I am secretly happy because they are pretty professional).
Hahaha don’t take me seriously.
I actually meant him, not you. But I do find this phase of Singaporean cultural evolution interesting and i wonder if Singapore has now reached its peak…meaning downhill from here. The model has been built on providing a well managed platform for MNC’s plus largely government engineered property price growth. But it seems the tolerance of the local population has reached its breaking point in terms of both foreigners and property. That was always going to happen in a place so small and endless property price inflation always implied being priced out of the global market. Productivity growth is nil, where will the new growth come from?
Safe Haven ? Pon? zi ? Population Regeneration to 6.9 mio ? Wealth Effect ? Financial Hub ?
Hey what about Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World model ?