Barclay’s Libor Scandal Involvement

Barclay’s Libor Scandal Involvement

Effects. Review. Future of Corporate Governance

By now, we all know about the corruption in the Libor Scandal, where banks falsely assessed inter-bank lending rates to raise the average on the London Inter-Bank Offered Rate (or Libor Rate).It shook the financial world and once again called into question the ethics of this industry. Barclays were hit with an almost 300m pound fine, weakening the public confidence and trust. Also, this scandal and public outcry led to both Barclays’ chiefs Bob Diamond and Marcus Agius resigned from their position.

This scandal had major impact on people’s view on banking ethics. In a Which survey made in 2010 to 2000 UK citizens, only 26% expect positive change from bank inquiry (Which?, 2012). These actions alongside their dwindling people’s trust made Barclays take a 360 review of their future.

In July 2012, Barclays announced an independent review of its business practices by Anthony Waltz, which assessed the current bank’s values, principle and standards of operation, was released in April 2013. The Salz Review was done to provide a thorough roadmap for cultural change at the bank. Barclays’ primary mission right now is to regain their customers’ trust. This review weighed in and advised 34 recommendations (Salz, 2013), which Barclays are committed to doing so. They all range from regulatory standards and code of conduct to shareholder interactions and employee engagement. But the biggest notion is that their cultural values, board ethics, code of conduct and internal audit has to completely change. Barclays are so obliged to change that they created the Transform Programme, a program dedicated to overview the implementation of these changes.

The Transform Programme was divided on 11 projects, one of them being solely Corporate Governance revision that seeks to be the best practice