Geithner Questioned Libor's Credibility in 2008

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has certainly earned the right to say "I told you so" to British authorities about the Libor rate-fixing scandal, but lawmakers are wondering whether he could have done more to prevent it. Geithner was running the Federal Reserve Bank of New York when he pushed UK regulators to change the way the Libor is calculated via a 2008 email containing six recommendations. Among them: He urged British authorities to "strengthen governance and establish a credible reporting procedure" and to "eliminate incentive to misreport," according to documents obtained by the New York Times.

A dozen Senate Democrats yesterday urged the Justice Department and federal banking regulators to pursue charges against the bankers involved, and to probe "allegations that US and foreign bank regulators may have been aware of this wrongdoing for years," reports the Wall Street Journal. "Regulators who were involved should be held to account for any failures to stop wrongdoing that they knew, or should have known about," the lawmakers said, adding that the rate manipulation "can, and likely did, hurt millions of American families, businesses, and municipalities." The NY Fed says it will release documents today to prove that it took prompt action at the time. (More Timothy Geithner stories.)