Surprise, surprise!
In the face of recent charges brought by US DOJ against Swiss banks, for sheltering US tax dodgers, it has just been announced that Switzerland is investigating a dozen US, European and Japanese banks for conspiring to manipulate lending rates.
The Swiss Competition Commission said today that it has received information of possible collusion between derivatives traders, influencing interest rates on some $350 Trillion of derivatives and other financial products to their own profit.
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..Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, HSBC Holdings, JP Morgan Chase & Co., Mizuho Financial Group Inc., Rabobank Groep N.V., Royal Bank of Scotland Plc Societe Generale, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and UBS.
U.S., European Union and British regulators are also investigating whether banks understated interbank rates to reduce borrowing costs and downplay investor panic during the banking crisis.
Not being wonky enough to really understand or explain what all this means, heh, I'll leave that to others in Comments...but just saying, raising or lowing interest rates on hundreds of trillions of dollars, by even a fraction of a percent, has got to amount to...pretty huge money, no?
Reuters
Meanwhile, we lose our homes, our pensions, our jobs, our healthcare...