LIBOR: An Example of Empirical Detection of Collusion

Case Study

1 In 2008, The Wall Street Journal reported that LIBOR rates seemed unexpectedly low.¹ However, later the 2008 quarterly review from the Bank of International Settlements and the 2008 stability report on the International Monetary Fund presented a different perspective. In 2010, Connan Snider and Thomas Youle released a paper that corroborated the findings of the WSJ. By 2012, financial regulators and competition authorities had fined the banks implicated in the matter.