It would be foolhardy at this stage to try to deduce which banks will turn out to have been involved in the ever-growing scandal over the rigging of the London interbank offered rate (Libor). But what was revealed by the Barclays internal e-mails published as part of the investigation was the considerable power wielded by traders within the bank.
The status of the trading desks is tied to the size of their role in generating income for the bank. The Banker has examined the 18 banks currently on the US dollar Libor panel to see the proportion of net trading income to total operating income in 2011. Of course, this is not in any way a reliable predictor of how the Libor investigations will play out. But it does provide an indication of which banks need maintain a constant focus on governance structures for their traders, given their importance to the bank.
