July 25 (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy
Geithner, who was then head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New
York, did not communicate in key meetings with top regulators
that British bank Barclays had admitted to Fed staffers
that it was manipulating Libor, the Washington Post said, citing
people familiar with the matter.
Documents released by the New York Federal Reserve Bank this
month showed regulators in the United States and England had
some knowledge that bankers were submitting misleading Libor
bids during the 2008 financial crisis to make their financial
institutions appear stronger than they were.
The reliability of the London interbank offered rate, which
underpins transactions worth trillions of dollars, has been
rattled by revelations that bankers manipulated it to profit on
trades and hide their own borrowing costs during the crisis.
Among other details, the Fed documents included the
transcript of an April 2008 telephone call between a Barclays
trader in New York and Fed official Fabiola Ravazzolo, in which
the unidentified trader said: "So, we know that we're not
posting um, an honest Libor."
However, senior officials and investigators never heard an
appeal from the New York Fed to investigate possible wrongdoing
over Libor, the Washington Post said, citing two people with
knowledge of the matter.
Geithner, through a spokesman, referred questions to the New
York Fed, which declined to comment, the newspaper said.
The New York Fed and Treasury Department could not
immediately be reached for comment by Reuters outside regular
U.S. business hours.