Amid the controversy over the fines imposed on Barclays by regulators in the UK and US over its misleading contribution to the setting of benchmark interbank rates it is easy to overlook some de facto regulations laid down by the Commodities and Futures Trading Commission over how banks go about setting these rates in the future.At their core these rules are pretty simple, since they require the rates contributed by Barclays - to the British Bankers Association in the case of Libor -  to reflect actual rates paid or received by the bank in its dealings in the cash market.To that extent the proposed practices imposed on the UK bank reflect those that apply in Australia for the setting of the bank bill swap rate in a process overseen by the Australian Financial Markets Association.The CFTC took what one commentator, Sean Keane of TTT Consulting, labelled in his regular circular for clients of Credit Suisse, the "the unusual and unexpected step of setting down the process by which Barclays must set its Libor fixing each day. "The process starts off with the bank first basing its fixing rates only upon the actual trades that it has undertaken in the cash market on the fixing day, and then cascades down through a number of other measures that the bank may use, each of which comes into play only when the prior measure has been excluded. The simplified CFTC Libor setting process, as summarised by Keane, is: 1. Unsecured cash deals executed by the bank (Barclays) itself.2.  Unsecured cash deals executed by the bank via other instruments such as commercial paper and certificates of deposit.3.  Other deals executed by the bank in related markets, including derivatives and repos.4. Unsecured cash deals executed by other banks.5. Unsecured cash deals executed by other banks via other instruments such as CP and CDs.6. Other deals executed by other banks in related markets, including derivatives and repos.7. Unsecured cash offers received by the bank itself.8.  Unsecured cash offers received by the bank via other instruments such as CP and CDs.9.  Other offers received by the bank itself in related products including derivatives and repos The assumption is that given the lack of physical cash trading that is taking place in the interbank markets, one would expect that Barclays, and thus other BBA panel banks, will need to start cascading down the list until they find an instrument or a price that they can point to as being live and in the market. Going forward they will need to base their Libor fixing submission off that rate.