Bloomberg (February 26)
CME Group Inc. (CME) no longer owns the world’s most valuable exchange. “Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd. overtook CME as the world’s largest exchange operator by market value in December as the Chinese company completed its $2.2 billion takeover of the London Metal Exchange. The Hong Kong bourse is the largest in the industry with a capitalization of $20.8 billion.” That could change, however, as CME has been putting out feelers about acquiring Deutsche Boerse. Any proposal would likely face stiff anti-trust and political opposition.
Financial Times (December 19)
“The conspiracy to fix Libor appears more extensive than had been previously thought. This was not just a question of massaging submissions to make UBS’s financial position look stronger than it was after the crisis. The settlement also points to a co-ordinated effort across banks to manipulate market rates for profit.” Collusion and anti-trust charges may lead to class-action suits. Libor may become “the banks’ ‘tobacco moment’, when long-running bad behaviour is finally rumbled and the lawsuits roll in.”
Tags: Anti-trust, Banks, Class-action, Collusion, LIBOR, Tobacco, UBS