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Did JPMorgan Host A Secret Meeting On Libor, With 7 Members Of The NY Fed
JPMorgan Chase, the Wall Street mega bank now under criminal probes for losing billions of FDIC insured deposits in risky derivative trades, for years has been one of the dinner hosts of an unseemly industry trade and lobby group established by none other than the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, its own regulator.
On the evening of October 8, 2009, representatives of the largest Wall Street banks enjoyed cocktails and dinner at 270 Park Avenue in Manhattan, the headquarters of JPMorgan Chase. Bill Hirschberg of Barclays was there; Jeff Feig of Citigroup; Troy Rohrbaugh of JPMorgan; Fabian Shey of UBS and numerous others.
Also enjoying the food and conversation were seven officials from their regulator, the New York Fed. The Fed attendees were: Steven Friedman, Marcus Lee, Susan McLaughlin, Patricia Mosser, Jamie Pfeifer, and Brian Sack. Michael Nelson, currently Counsel and Senior Vice President of the New York Fed was also in attendance.
The group is called the Foreign Exchange Committee and its sponsor is the New York Fed, the same body tasked with policing these firms to root out illegal conduct.
On this particular evening, there is the suggestion that more than foreign exchange may have been discussed. In attendance was Michael Cross, a high ranking official from the Bank of England who has been centrally involved in the Libor matter. In Libor-related emails that were released, Cross shows a bias toward self-regulation. In an internal June 2, 2008 email, Cross stated that “a panel of senior bankers overseeing the BBA process (from within the BBA) is a way to go.”
The BBA refers to the British Bankers Association, a trade association that oversees Libor, the interest rate setting mechanism for financial products used globally. The public learned earlier this year that the rate has been rigged for years by an international banking cartel.
