European Parliament backs jail terms for Libor cheats - 2012-10-10

The European Parliament's Economic & Monetary Affairs Committee today backed Vice Chair Arlene McCarthy's report on new tougher market abuse rules.

Labour Euro MP, Arlene McCarthy said: “The vote is a clear signal that the EU is not a soft option or safe haven for perpetrators of market abuse. For the first time we're introducing EU wide criminal sanctions including jail terms for those intent on committing market abuse.”

“The Libor scandal has demonstrated that the culture in the financial sector hasn't changed and that they cannot be trusted to self regulate. Our vote today has extended the law so that all benchmarks and indices fall under market abuse rules to cover all possible and future manipulation,” she said.

The strong stance from MEPs on criminal sanctions for market abuse was also today shown to have wide public support – 89% of Europeans questioned in a survey launched by the campaign group Avaaz.

According to their figures released today, the overwhelming majority of people polled in France (90%), Germany and the UK (89% each) believe that bankers responsible for fraud or manipulating markets should face criminal sanctions such as jail sentences.

Avaaz today presented Arlene with a petition, signed by over 720,000 people, calling for such sanctions.

ENDS

For more information (or a photo of Arlene McCarthy with the Avaaz "put bankers behind bars" petition) please contact either Suzanne Richards on 00447811 175617 or the Labour MEPs' Press Officer, David Poyser on 00 32 479 790053 or david.poyser@europarl.europa.eu

Notes for Editors

The Economic & Monetary Affairs Committee in the European Parliament voted TODAY on new rules to cover Market Abuse.
The Parliament will now start negotiations with the Council of Ministers under the Cypriot presidency to gain a first reading agreement. The aim is to finish the legislation by the end of 2012 with implementation foreseen for 2013 - 2014.
A full background Q&A on the draft law is available on request.

› Back