U.S. homeowners filed a lawsuit against 12 banks, including Barclays Bank Plc and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), claiming that manipulation of the benchmark Libor lending rate made their mortgage repayments more expensive.
Traders at banks in Europe and North America such as UBS AG (UBSN), Bank of America Corp. (BAC) and Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc (RBS), “unjustly enriched themselves” by manipulating the rate, according to the complaint. That allowed them to increase the payments by homeowners on adjustable rate loans, boosting profit, according to the lawsuit.
.... It is the first lawsuit filed by homeowners, the Financial Times reported earlier today without saying where it got the information. The five lead plaintiffs include Annie Bell Adams, a pensioner whose home was repossessed, the FT reported.
The case is Adams et al. v. Bank of America Corp. (BAC) et al., 12-cv-07461, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
LIBOR, Libor, the London Interbank Offered Rate averages interest rates estimated by London-based "leading banks" that they would be charged if borrowing from other banks. It is, unfortunately, the primary benchmark, along with the Euribor, for short term interest rates around the world -- and as Joe Biden would put it, your usual pile of malarkey.
It's the usual dicking around with money and artificial crap generated by the dicked-out financial community in its never-ending war against people and families.
The five lead plaintiffs include Annie Bell Adams, a pensioner who had her home repossessed and whose subprime mortgage was securitised into Libor-based collateralised debt obligations and sold by banks to investors, the FT said.
The suit alleges that traders at banks in Europe and North America, including Barclays, Bank of America and UBS, were incentivised to manipulate the London interbank offered rate to a higher rate on certain dates on which adjustable mortgage interest rates were reset.
This resulted in homeowners paying more between 2000 and 2009, the FT quoted the complaint as saying.
The defendants listed are the Bank of America in its various permutations; Barclays Group; CitiGroup AKA CitiBank, et al; Cooperatieve Centrale, Raiffeisen-Boerrenleenbank, whatever the devil that is; Credit Suisse Group; Lloyd’s Banking Group, Bank of Canada, Royal Bank of Scotland, UBS AKA United Bank of Switzerland and so forth.
It remains to be seen whether or not justice will be achieved. This is, after all, a battle between corporate banking giants which control a huge amount of the earth's assets versus a few puny humans who are trying to hang on to their homes and lives. Present day courts cannot be trusted to be friendly to humans. And, should the case go to the U.S. Supreme Court, Justice Antonin Scalia would be delighted to personally crucify Annie Belle Adams, reputed to be from Alabama. He would gleefully pound in the first stake through her hands to nail her to the cross.