Several major financial institutions under inquiry in the Libor case are going to push for introducing account fees for their customers. They blame ‘free’ accounts as one of the reasons behind interest rate rigging.
The major banks including Britain’s Barclays and Spain’s Santander are expected to argue in favor of introducing account fees at a meeting of the UK Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards, the Daily Mail reports. Banks must submit evidence on the Libor case to the Commission by the end of this week. The panel was set up after Barclays admitted it was involved in Libor fixing and paid a more than $450 million fine to settle the probe.
Bankers as well as some British officials say free banking services hinders real competition in the market. Treasury Select Committee chairman Andrew Tyrie, who is heading the Commission, has recently described free banking as a ‘myth’.
http://rt.com/business/news/banks-libor-account-fee-102/
