There was
something noisome in the calculation of the euribor a few months ago. Indeed, the
inquiry got started after a surfeit of winning bets by a few banks took place
in the market. By some, it looked like a blatant manipulation, and with their
complaints the subsequent injunction was fueled. Hitherto, nobody had even come
to imagine that the system lied wizened in the hands of puissant bankers.
When the
first voice of alarm was heard, it sounded like a strident din, annoying and
rubbing up the wrong way whomever till then had behaved towards the most relevant
international index in such an obsequious manner.
Times of change
in the regulation are taking hold. When the ones who set up the rules hold also
an inner interest in the way the bets end up, the propriety that should reign
and impregnate each and every decision may suffer the risk of steadily fading
out.
The
European Securities and Market Authority (ESMA) may stand out in the middle of
the chaos. The Commission has recently announced that they have a keen penchant
for that public body to be in charge of the calculation of the two most
relevant indexes: euribor and libor.
Factious
opinions that in the past lobbied for an independent institution to crunch the
numbers when it came to those financial references, today glut the media with news
that welcome the intentions of the Commission.
The incipient
regulation is expected to be passed by the MPs given the expedient need of
transparency in a market that, otherwise, could be hit again by a spate of international
criticism - something that could bring enough uncertainty to shove countries
with inchoate programs of recovery to the edge of collapse -
It seems
the appropriate time to put aside smarmy opinions that laud the benefits of a self-regulated
market, and, on the contrary, adjure the institutions to take the reins of sensitive
affairs of magnitude that, in the wrong hands, could
leave most of the middle class in the lurch while propitiating a golden
retirement for a few people at the top.
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