Perhaps Timber (being a former compliance lawyer for one of the majors) could chime in (he's eerily silent on this matter) and explain to us very briefly his view on the effectiveness of the generally crippling and excessive punitive damages associated with swap rigging.
http://www.*.com.au/anz-has-stood-d...inter-bank-interest-rate-manipulation-2014-11
ANZ: “We have been treating this matter very seriously and we are continuing to cooperate fully with ASIC".
So serious, in fact, that it has taken 7 years to only now stand down 7 traders.
"In light of this, we are taking the precaution of having seven staff involved in markets trading step down"
An odd choice of words. "Precaution". It has already happened.
Precaution would relate to oversight, review standards, new internal policy, ethics training (lol), and in terms of precaution relating to a possible fine.. take on more compliance lawyers.. LOL.
And the accountants would now be gearing up for nutting out a way to deduct this ridiculously small "contingent liability" at year's end under... Education Expense. If they are actually fined that is.
After that, a 2 hour boozy lunch with the compliance dept. where many a back slap shall occur (at ANZ shareholder's expense).
Marvelous. Genius in fact.
