Libor Set for Overhaul as Credibility Is Doubted

May 13 (Bloomberg) -- The benchmark interest rate for at least $347 trillion of derivatives and 6 million U.S. mortgages is set for its biggest shakeup in a decade on concern that banks misquoted their true borrowing costs.

"We have not run away or hidden from the need for reform or the need for review" of "serious issues"' in the U.K. financial-services industry, British Bankers' Association Chief Executive Officer Angela Knight said at a hearing of a parliamentary committee in London today. The BBA is set to announce the results of its most far-reaching review of the way it sets the London interbank offered rate in a decade on May 30.

The association, an unregulated London-based trade group, is under pressure to show that Libor is reliable following complaints by investors that financial institutions weren't telling the truth about their funding costs after rising mortgage defaults contaminated credit markets and drove up borrowing costs.

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"The Libor numbers that banks reported to the BBA were a lie," said Tim Bond, head of global asset allocation at Barclays Capital in London. "They had been all along. The BBA has been trying to investigate them and that's why banks have started to report the right numbers."

Bloomberg