Central banks 'should consider reform of Libor'

The Governor of the Bank of England Sir Mervyn King has proposed that central bank governors and regulators should discuss possible reform of Libor at a meeting in September, BBC News reported Thursday. He told fellow central bankers in a letter that it was "very clear that radical reforms of the Libor system are needed". The move comes after the Barclays Libor inter-bank rate-rigging scandal. US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Wednesday that reforming Libor must be a multi-national effort. Sir Mervyn has written to the Economic Consultative Committee, which he heads, suggesting that central bankers discuss ideas for reforming Libor in Basel, Switzerland, on September 9. The process by which banks set the benchmark rate at which they lend to each other has been discredited following Barclays' ?290m fine and widespread belief that other banks were also involved in manipulating Libor.