Dear friends,
The EU finance regulator, Michel Barnier is standing up to the powerful bank lobby and championing reform that would put bankers behind bars for fraud like this. If the EU goes first, accountability could quickly spread across the globe. But the banks are lobbying hard against it, and we need a massive surge of people power to drive these reforms through.
If we can get 1 million people to stand with Barnier in the next 3 days, it will give him momentum to face down the banking lobby and push governments to bring reform. Click below to sign, and our growing numbers will be represented by adding mock bankers to a jail right in front of the EU Parliament:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/
The full scale of the scandal is still unknown, but what we know is breathtaking: "Several" unnamed major banks were involved, and the rigging of the LIBOR interest rate, the rate on which many of the world's interest rates are based, affected the value of literally hundreds of trillions of dollars in investments. Barclays alone has admitted to committing this fraud "hundreds" of times.
For too long, our governments have been cowed by powerful banks who threatened to move elsewhere if challenged. For too long, banks have manipulated our market economies, tilting the playing field in their favour, and engaging in reckless risk-taking, secure in the knowledge that they could force governments to hand them our taxpayer money when they got into trouble.
The system is rigged, and that's a crime. It's time to put the criminals behind bars for it. It starts in Europe -- let's make it happen:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/
There may never have been a time in modern history when the big banks didn't have excessive and extraordinary power that they regularly abused. But democracy is on the march -- we've seen this march overcome tyrants across the world, and together, we'll help end the reign of the banks as well.
With hope,
Ricken, Iain, Alex, Antonia, Giulia, Luis, and the entire Avaaz team
P.S. -- Last week 94,000 people joined Avaaz member David R.'s campaign against foul-play in the Mexican elections which he launched on the new Avaaz Community Petitions platform. Get support for the things you care strongly about by starting your campaign here: http://www.avaaz.org/en/
More information:
FSA's Turner Says Banks Culture One of "Cynical Entitlement' (Bloomberg)
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/
Barclays Libor scandal: how can we change banking culture? (The Guardian)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
Barclays just the tip of the iceberg as banking braced for more scandals (The Guardian)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
The rotten heart of finance: A scandal over key interest rates is about to go global (Economist)
http://www.economist.com/node/
Banking Reforms after the Libor scandal (Financial Times)
http://blogs.ft.com/martin-
EU's Barnier pushes for criminal sanctions for Libor abuse (Reuters)
http://in.reuters.com/article/
Barnier Seeks to Widen EU Rules to Bar Libor Manipulation (Business Week)
http://www.businessweek.com/
