Libor

Banks are stopping any further rises in mortgage rates, freezing interest rates at a date reportedly set for March 31.

This means that any increases made after last Friday or due to be made from now on in the interest rates that form the basis of reference for housing loans will not be applied.

Minos Zombanakis, a Cretan who became an influential international banker, died at 92 Saturday following a long illness.

He was born in 1926 at Kalyves, a village near the Greek city of Chania, the second of a farmer's seven children.

Zombanakis entered the University of Athens in 1943, during the German occupation, but never got his undergraduate degree.

Two former junior Barclays traders have been unanimously acquitted by a London jury of conspiring to rig Libor benchmark interest rates in a blow to the UK Serious Fraud Office.

Ryan Reich, a 35-year-old American, and Greek national Stylianos Contogoulas, 45, walked free on Thursday after their second trial on a single charge of conspiracy to defraud.

[Reuters]

Türk Eximbank has signed syndicated loans worth 500 million euros with the participation of 26 banks, it announced in a written statement on July 21. 

Türk Eximbank, the official export credit agency of the Turkish government and Turkey?s major export incentive instrument, thus refinanced transactions worth 330 million euros that were due on July 16, the statement added. 

Deutsche Bank faced a multi-billion-dollar fine on April 23 as British and U.S. officials prepared to announce a legal settlement over alleged attempts at its London-based subsidiary to manipulate interest rate benchmarks. 

Credit Europe Bank announced, on Wednesday, the updating, as of the same day, of the Libor index for the retail Swiss franc loans with variable interest rate. As a result of this measure, the interest rate for these loans is reduced.

Photo credit: (c) George CALIN / AGERPRES ARCHIVE

The Swiss National Bank unexpectedly scrapped its cap on the franc on Thursday, sending the safe-haven currency crashing through the 1.20 per euro limit it set more than three years ago.

By Foo Yun Chee

European Union antitrust regulators charged Europe's biggest bank HSBC, US peer JPMorgan and France's Credit Agricole on Tuesday with rigging financial benchmarks linked to the euro, exposing them to potential fines.

The European Commission also said it would charge broker ICAP soon for suspected manipulation of the yen Libor financial benchmark.