ANZ strike out seven over BBSW probe

Australia's so far minor brush with interest rate benchmark rigging scandals may be widening.

ANZ yesterday said it had suspended "seven staff involved in markets trading pending completion of the investigation into practices to 2013."

ANZ said it was "continuing to cooperate with an investigation by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission into historic trading practices in the Australian interbank market known as the Bank Bill Swap Rate market."

On ANZ's version, since mid-2012 ASIC has been undertaking inquiries of 14 BBSW panel bank members in relation to the integrity of their past involvement in the BBSW submission process.

The 14 panel banks provided observations on the levels at which prime bank paper was trading.  The BBSW rules topped and tailed the 14 submissions back to six, which were then averaged to calculate BBSW. The number of prime banks (who issued the traded paper) varied over time but was always well below 14.

In July this year ASIC accepted an enforceable undertaking from Royal Bank of Scotland. RBS made a voluntary contribution of A$1.6 million to fund independent financial literacy projects in Australia.

In January ASIC also accepted a voluntary contribution of A$1 million from BNP Paribas to fund financial literacy.

Late last year ASIC also accepted an enforceable undertaking from UBS in relation to potential misconduct involving the BBSW.

In July 2012, UBS reported to ASIC that it had found evidence of conduct seeking to influence its BBSW submissions, based on how the submissions might benefit UBS's derivatives positions. UBS also made a "voluntary contribution" to fund independent financial literacy projects in Australia.

According to the Australian Financial Markets Association's guide, BBSW "was previously calculated using panellist observations of the mid-point rate at which Prime Bank Eligible Securities traded in the open market."

From September 2013, "AFMA refined the calculation methodology, thereafter using live and executable prices in the market for Prime Bank Eligible Securities as the price discovery mechanism."

According to AFMA, "BBSW [now] remains underpinned by an actively traded market".