Britain's Libor system needs 'complete overhaul'

Britain's Libor rate needs a "complete overhaul" after the Barclays rate-rigging scandal, the financial regulator will say in a government-commissioned report due for publication Friday. The Financial Services Authority (FSA) is to recommend that the British Bankers' Association be stripped of its role in setting Libor, with the process handed over to a new group. The FSA must be given regulatory and sanctioning powers, the report is to say, according to an advance copy of a speech due to be delivered by FSA managing director Martin Wheatley. The Libor scandal erupted in June when Barclays bank was fined £290 million ($470 million, 363 million euros) by British and US regulators for attempted manipulation of Libor and Euribor interbank rates between 2005 and 2009.