In the UK, the government is planning to crack down on the fraudulent activities of bankers just under a year before general elections take place. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne has announced their plan to come down with criminal charges for any bankers or traders found to be manipulating currency rates or borrowing costs. The government has threated to extend the laws for these criminals to serve sentences up to seven years in jail for those that manipulate the London interbank offered rate (Libor) and fixed income and commodity markets, as reported by the Treasury. The announcement of these harsh penalties was made recently at the London’s Mansion House before Osborne and Mark Carney, the Bank of England governor, took the stand.

The government is hoping that these measures will change things around. The new penalties are also in response to a larger review conducted by the Treasury, the Bank of England, and the Financial Conduct Authority into how the markets operate. Osborne noted that, “Markets here set the interest rates for people’s mortgages, the exchange rates for our export and holidays, and the commodity prices for the goods we buy…I am going to deal with abuses, tackle the unacceptable behavior of the few and ensure that markets are fair for the many who depend on them.” The UK has already been wracked by financial scandals and it seems as if the government is trying to get out ahead of this one. The earlier issues include allegations of traders rigging the $5.3 trillion a day currency market and possibilities of fraud in the London gold fixing market. A senior trial lawyer, Robert Rhodes states, “From the point of view of the reputation for the City of London and our financial services, the cleaner we’re seen to be the better in the long run…It is perhaps surprising that more benchmarks weren’t dealt with at the time they dealt with the Libor scandal. The government has obviously now realized the seriousness and breadth of this issue.”

Christopher Wakem is a London-based legal consultant/contractor who has worked in the independent bar, private practice, and in-house sectors. He received his undergraduate and postgraduate Law degrees from the University of Sheffield and University College, respectively. He has helped companies large and small establish risk management policies, develop start-up procedures, negotiate framework agreements, secure insurance coverage, and deal with Anti-Money-Laundering and Anti-Bribery and corruption matters. In addition, he has assisted organizations with litigation relating to the miss-selling of derivative financial products, global compliance issues, inter-bank lending matters, and global AML/CFT matters. He has increasingly devoted his attention to these financial services–particularly AML / CTF / ABC matters–given the sharp increase in regulatory activity in those areas.