Jake's View | In Hibor debate, remember you have to pay for good data
Whatever mechanism is adopted to try to make the interbank market reveal valuable truths without payment, it will always be subverted
We are already very much in line. In characteristic copycat fashion the HKMA started an investigation of the Swiss bank UBS a day after it paid up for alleged Libor (London interbank offered rate) infringements. Hibor rhymes with Libor. How much more guilt do you need?
UBS, in case you didn't know it, is like one of those placid Swiss cows that inhabit the alpine meadows with bells hanging from their necks to tell their owners where they roam.
"Milk me, milk me, milk me," rings the UBS bell and hungry regulators and lawyers around the world quickly oblige, milking it for billions in fines and fees, all the while trying to make you believe that it's a slavering New York wolf instead of a big dumb Swiss cow. Moral of the story: they chew the cud too much at UBS.
I always think that the American versifier Ogden Nash best identified the true beneficiaries of purported financial crimes:
