The human impact of Barclays’ LIBOR fixing
The human impact of Barclays’ LIBOR fixing.
The day after the Barclays LIBOR (London Inter-bank Offered Rate) situation became public, I went into my local Barclays branch. I have banked with Barclays for over 30 years, and I told one of the bank tellers, with whom I have a good relationship, how very upset and disappointed I was with Barclays. She said that she, and the other employees felt just as bad, just as let down.
And then she described what happened at her home that morning. Her young son heard the news, and got really upset because he thought that his Mum had been involved in criminal activity and was going to jail. She explained to him that it wasn’t her, that it was people far senior to her and in a different part of the bank, but he found it difficult to understand and remained upset for a while.
And whilst he’s OK now, it’s an interesting reminder to us of the personal impact and knock-on effect of lack of integrity.