Twenty of the world’s largest banks were censured by Singapore authorities on Friday over the attempted manipulation of local benchmark interest rates that is part of a larger rate-rigging scandal being investigated by global regulators.  http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/06/14/singapore-censures-20-banks-over-rates/   The financial institutions, including Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase, were found to have allowed some of their traders to try to alter rates including the Singapore interbank offered rate, or Sibor. The latest revelations follow a series of multimillion-dollar fines against UBS, Barclays and the Royal Bank of Scotland for the manipulation of the London interbank offered rate, or Libor, which underpins trillions of dollars of mortgages, business loans and other global financial products. The Monetary Authority of Singapore said 133 traders at firms like Credit Suisse, Citigroup and ING tried to influence the local benchmark rate for their own financial gain over a five-year period starting in 2007.
As the rate-rigging investigations enter their fifth year, regulators continue to look into allegations that traders at some of the world’s largest banks altered benchmark rates for financial gain.