LONDON, July 17 (Reuters) – Britain’s banks have been told
to test how they would cope if several euro zone countries
exited the single currency, the UK’s Financial Services
Authority watchdog said on Tuesday.

FSA Chairman Adair Turner said Britain’s banks needed to
think about problems arising from their assets and liabilities
being redenominated into another currency, even though the
likelihood of this happening was still small.

LONDON, July 16 (Reuters) – A former Barclays executive said
he ordered staff to manipulate interest rates in line with
instructions from his then boss, Bob Diamond, providing an
account of the scandal apparently at odds with that given by the
British bank’s former chief executive.

Jerry del Missier, who resigned as chief operating officer
two weeks ago shortly after Diamond quit, came under intense
cross-examination on Monday from a parliamentary committee over
whether he knew artificially lowering Barclays’ rates was
illegal.

LONDON (Reuters) – A former Barclays executive said he ordered staff to manipulate interest rates in line with instructions from his then boss, Bob Diamond, providing an account of the scandal apparently at odds with that given by the British bank’s former chief executive.

Jerry del Missier, who resigned as chief operating officer two weeks ago shortly after Diamond quit, came under intense cross-examination on Monday from a parliamentary committee over whether he knew artificially lowering Barclays’ rates was illegal.

LONDON, July 16 (Reuters) – The United States is expected to
allow its top companies to use global book-keeping rules,
ensuring they will gain currency despite a lack of enthusiasm
from the country’s regulators, accounting industry officials
said on Monday.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said on Friday
that full-scale adoption of rules known as IFRS and set by the
London-based International Accounting Standards Board (IASB),
had little support, dealing a blow to hopes among investors of
their universal adoption.

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s Financial Services Authority is reviewing how it supervises wholesale capital markets following the Libor interbank interest rate-setting scandal, its chairman Adair Turner said on Tuesday.

The FSA has traditionally focused on dealings affecting retail markets for financial services and products but this is now set to change after the record fine last week for Barclays for attempting to rig the key Libor interbank lending rate which underpins the pricing of a wide range of financial instruments and products, with other banks expected to be implicated too.

LONDON (Reuters) – Barclays’ record fine for rigging Libor interest rates should be a “watershed” moment for the wider financial industry to clean up its act and restore public trust, Britain’s markets watchdog said on Monday.

The Libor penalty and last week’s news that Britain’s top four banks mis-sold interest rate swaps to small businesses compounds the stereotype of a sector that cannot be trusted and left to its own devices, said Tracey McDermott, acting head of enforcement at the Financial Services Authority.

LONDON, June 29 (Reuters) – The Bank of England opened the
way on Friday for Britain’s banks to loosen their purse strings
and tap the 500-billion pound cash pile they hold to boost
stagnant economic growth.

The bank’s Financial Policy Committee said banks had plenty
of short-term cash set away for market shocks and could run
these down, though they should still be prepared to forego
paying as much in bonuses and dividends as in the past in order
to build up longer-term capital buffers.

FRANKFURT/LONDON June 29 (Reuters) – Global banking
regulators have mapped out how they will tighten up supervision
of big domestic banks from 2016 in a bid to avoid calling on
taxpayers if they fail.

The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision has already set
out how the world’s top 29 banks such as Deutsche Bank
, Goldman Sachs and HSBC must hold
extra capital from 2016.

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s banks must change their culture fundamentally after a string of scandals ranging from the “deceitful manipulation” of a key interest rate to “shoddy treatment of customers”, Bank of England Governor Mervyn King said on Friday.

Britain’s Barclays found itself in the firing line this week after U.S. and British authorities fined it $450 million (287 million pounds) for manipulating the London interbank offer rate, and the scandal is now also expected to draw in other top banks.

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s banks must change their culture fundamentally after a string of scandals ranging from the “deceitful manipulation” of a key interest rate to “shoddy treatment of customers”, Bank of England Governor Mervyn King said on Friday.

Britain’s Barclays (BARC.L: Quote, Profile, Research) found itself in the firing line this week after U.S. and British authorities fined it $450 million (287 million pounds) for manipulating the London interbank offer rate, and the scandal is now also expected to draw in other top banks.