IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbfina/v36y2012i1p136-150.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Libor manipulation?

Author

Listed:
  • Abrantes-Metz, Rosa M.
  • Kraten, Michael
  • Metz, Albert D.
  • Seow, Gim S.

Abstract

On May 29, 2008 the Wall Street Journal published an article alleging that several global banks were reporting Libor quotes significantly lower than those implied by prevailing credit default swap (CDS) spreads. While acknowledging that the “analysis doesn’t prove that banks are lying or manipulating Libor,” it nevertheless conjectures that these banks may “have been low-balling their borrowing rates to avoid looking desperate for cash.”

Suggested Citation

  • Abrantes-Metz, Rosa M. & Kraten, Michael & Metz, Albert D. & Seow, Gim S., 2012. "Libor manipulation?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 136-150.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbfina:v:36:y:2012:i:1:p:136-150
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbankfin.2011.06.014
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378426611002032
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbankfin.2011.06.014?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rosa Abrantes-Metz & Sofia Villas-Boas & George Judge, 2011. "Tracking the Libor rate," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(10), pages 893-899.
    2. Craig Pirrong, 2004. "Detecting Manipulation in Futures Markets: The Ferruzzi Soybean Episode," American Law and Economics Review, American Law and Economics Association, vol. 6(1), pages 28-71.
    3. George Judge & Laura Schechter, 2009. "Detecting Problems in Survey Data Using Benford’s Law," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 44(1).
    4. Patrick Bajari & Lixin Ye, 2003. "Deciding Between Competition and Collusion," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 85(4), pages 971-989, November.
    5. Ashton, John K. & Hudson, Robert S., 2008. "Interest rate clustering in UK financial services markets," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(7), pages 1393-1403, July.
    6. Christian Ewerhart & Nuno Cassola & Steen Ejerskov & Natacha Valla, 2007. "Manipulation in Money Markets," International Journal of Central Banking, International Journal of Central Banking, vol. 3(1), pages 113-148, March.
    7. Rajesh P. Narayanan & Kasturi P. Rangan & Nanda K. Rangan, 2007. "The Effect of Private-Debt-Underwriting Reputation on Bank Public-Debt Underwriting," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 20(3), pages 597-618.
    8. Rosa Abrantes-Metz & Patrick Bajari, 2010. "Screens for Conspiracies and Their Multiple Applications," CPI Journal, Competition Policy International, vol. 6.
    9. Abrantes-Metz, Rosa M. & Froeb, Luke M. & Geweke, John & Taylor, Christopher T., 2006. "A variance screen for collusion," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 24(3), pages 467-486, May.
    10. Jacob Gyntelberg & Philip Wooldridge, 2008. "Interbank rate fixings during the recent turmoil," BIS Quarterly Review, Bank for International Settlements, March.
    11. Robert H. Porter & J. Douglas Zona, 1999. "Ohio School Milk Markets: An Analysis of Bidding," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 30(2), pages 263-288, Summer.
    12. Gorton, Gary, 1996. "Reputation Formation in Early Bank Note Markets," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 104(2), pages 346-397, April.
    13. Ahn, Sungyoon & Choi, Wooseok, 2009. "The role of bank monitoring in corporate governance: Evidence from borrowers' earnings management behavior," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 425-434, February.
    14. Miles Livingston & Robert E. Miller, 2000. "Investment Bank Reputation and the Underwriting of Nonconvertible Debt," Financial Management, Financial Management Association, vol. 29(2), Summer.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Garcia Pires, Armando J. & Skjeret, Frode, 2023. "Screening for partial collusion in retail electricity markets," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(C).
    2. Huber, Martin & Imhof, David, 2019. "Machine learning with screens for detecting bid-rigging cartels," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 277-301.
    3. Theoharry Grammatikos & Nikolaos I. Papanikolaou, 2021. "Applying Benford’s Law to Detect Accounting Data Manipulation in the Banking Industry," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 59(1), pages 115-142, April.
    4. Granlund, David & Rudholm, Niklas, 2023. "Calculating the probability of collusion based on observed price patterns," Umeå Economic Studies 1014, Umeå University, Department of Economics, revised 13 Oct 2023.
    5. Mats A. Bergman & Johan Lundberg & Sofia Lundberg & Johan Y. Stake, 2020. "Interactions Across Firms and Bid Rigging," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 56(1), pages 107-130, February.
    6. David Imhof & Yavuz Karagök & SAMUEL RUTZ, 2017. "Screening for Bid-rigging. Does it Work?," Working Papers 2017-09, CRESE.
    7. Kai Hüschelrath & Tobias Veith, 2014. "Cartel Detection in Procurement Markets," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 35(6), pages 404-422, September.
    8. Imhof, David & Wallimann, Hannes, 2021. "Detecting bid-rigging coalitions in different countries and auction formats," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    9. Imhof, David, 2017. "Simple Statistical Screens to Detect Bid Rigging," FSES Working Papers 484, Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences, University of Freiburg/Fribourg Switzerland.
    10. Wallimann, Hannes & Imhof, David & Huber, Martin, 2020. "A Machine Learning Approach for Flagging Incomplete Bid-rigging Cartels," FSES Working Papers 513, Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences, University of Freiburg/Fribourg Switzerland.
    11. Hannes Wallimann & David Imhof & Martin Huber, 2023. "A Machine Learning Approach for Flagging Incomplete Bid-Rigging Cartels," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 62(4), pages 1669-1720, December.
    12. Bolotova, Yuliya & Connor, John M. & Miller, Douglas J., 2008. "The impact of collusion on price behavior: Empirical results from two recent cases," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 26(6), pages 1290-1307, November.
    13. Clark, Robert & Coviello, Decio & de Leverano, Adriano, 2020. "Complementary bidding and the collusive arrangement: Evidence from an antitrust investigation," ZEW Discussion Papers 20-052, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    14. Martin Huber & David Imhof & Rieko Ishii, 2022. "Transnational machine learning with screens for flagging bid‐rigging cartels," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 185(3), pages 1074-1114, July.
    15. Iwan Bos & Maarten Pieter Schinkel, 2009. "Tracing the Base: A Topographic Test for Collusive Basing-Point Pricing," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 09-007/1, Tinbergen Institute.
    16. Kurdoglu, Berkay & Yucel, Eray, 2022. "A Cointegration-based cartel screen for detecting collusion," MPRA Paper 113888, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Imhof, David & Karagök, Yavuz & Rutz, Samuel, 2016. "Screening for bid-rigging - does it work?," FSES Working Papers 468, Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences, University of Freiburg/Fribourg Switzerland.
    18. Silveira, Douglas & de Moraes, Lucas B. & Fiuza, Eduardo P.S. & Cajueiro, Daniel O., 2023. "Who are you? Cartel detection using unlabeled data," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    19. Joseph E. Harrington, Jr, 2005. "Detecting Cartels," Economics Working Paper Archive 526, The Johns Hopkins University,Department of Economics.
    20. Johannes Wachs & J'anos Kert'esz, 2019. "A network approach to cartel detection in public auction markets," Papers 1906.08667, arXiv.org.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Libor; Manipulations; Conspiracies; Collusion; Price-fixing; Bid-rigging; Credit default swap spreads;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C10 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - General
    • C22 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Time-Series Models; Dynamic Quantile Regressions; Dynamic Treatment Effect Models; Diffusion Processes
    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading
    • G24 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Investment Banking; Venture Capital; Brokerage
    • K20 - Law and Economics - - Regulation and Business Law - - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jbfina:v:36:y:2012:i:1:p:136-150. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbf .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.