André Villeneuve heads new LIBOR unit

Villeneuve, who joined Reuters as a graduate trainee in 1967 and left in 2002, will lead an independent board of ICE Benchmark Administration. ICE, the energy and commodity futures bourse in Atlanta, owns Europe’s second-largest futures market, the Liffe derivatives market, which is due to take control of LIBOR on 1 February. Liffe offers LIBOR-based short sterling futures and Euribor, dominating the market for trading of short-term interest-rate products. LIBOR is the basis for setting interest rates from mortgages and student loans to derivatives.

“It is vital that market participants have full confidence in the integrity of the rate,” ICE Benchmark Administration president Finbarr Hutcheson said in a statement on Friday. “With the support of market participants, regulators and stakeholders, and through enhanced checks and controls, IBA will work collaboratively to ensure full confidence in Libor.”

The British Bankers’ Association, whose members are among the world’s largest lenders including those who contribute to LIBOR, was stripped of responsibility for the benchmark last April after regulators found banks had tried to manipulate it to profit from bets on derivatives.

The European Union fined six lenders a record 1.7 billion euros in December, bringing total global fines to about $6 billion. Ten people have been charged in US and UK criminal investigations. ■