BankThink

If manipulation of the interest rate benchmark inadvertently benefited borrowers, someone else had to pay the price.

Receiving Wide Coverage ...Flight from Europe, to Safety: The stats in this morning's papers speak volumes: Three-month LIBOR hit its highest level since July 2009. (And if history is any guide, we gather some banks' actual borrowing costs could be worse than the index suggests.) The exchange rate for the euro fell below $1.30 for the first time since January. And cash on deposit at foreign-owned banks in the U.S. has fallen for six straight months, the first time this has happened in nearly a decade. The upshot of all this: confidence in Europe and in the global banking sector remains fragile, last week's accord among the continent's leaders notwithstanding.

One day Ed, CEO of the local community bank, was in his office waiting for the start of the most dispirited board meeting in his bank’s 100-plus year history. As he waited, Ed began reminiscing about his first day at the bank, when he began working as an office boy at age twelve.

Why did PricewaterhouseCoopers allow MF Global financial statements to be issued with a clean audit opinion? Why wasn't there a "going concern" warning?

It was a scene begging to be turned into a Christopher Guest script (remember, "Best in Show" and "A Mighty Wind?"): A film crew sets up last week and prepares for a shoot around the Foley Square area of lower Manhattan.

California has created an eCrime Unit to investigate identity theft and other cybercrimes, Kamala Harris, the state's attorney general, announced Tuesday.

Receiving Wide Coverage ...Fed Leaves Rates Unchanged: Recent data "suggests that the economy has been expanding moderately," the central bank said after the last policy meeting of the year, though it left its policy options open for 2012. A return to purchases of mortgage-backed securities remains a possibility, but for now the Fed will simply continue to reinvest principal repayments in new MBS. Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, New York Times, Washington Post

The Office of Financial Research, established by the Dodd-Frank Act to help regulators identify and thwart systemic risk events, faces a daunting task.

Despite recent sweet talk about building better relationships and regaining trust, few banks are taking meaningful steps to do either. It will take more than sympathetic ads, friendlier tellers or bonus credit card miles. This may require some time in therapy.

The G-20 held its summit in Cannes on managing risk in the global economy in early November. The group of heads of state covered the broad policy and political issues, financial ministers spoke on the difficulty of legislating rules and preventing unintended consequences.